Sutter's French Confections: Planning Return

[Sutter's Lives]

Hi everyone! I came across this site trying to learn about my great-grandfather Edison Sutter's famous New York bakery and noticed there was an old topic that discussed it in passing. My grandfather recently passed, and he lived in the old Sutter house. Now having the opportunity to go through it and learn the story, I have decided that this is a calling to reopen a great New York landmark. I even have the old neon signs and menus in my possession. If anyone here has any stories or pictures to share that would be great as I was born a decade after the corner Greenwich store closed.

Thanks,

Dan

[Bux]

We lived near the Greenwhich Avenue store for a few years and have some good memories of the danishes and pound cake, but my real memory is of the shop in Brooklyn from my childhood. Of course those were the days when butter got the respect it deserved.

[Oceangroveguy]

Sutters Charlotte Russe were a regular treat in my Brooklyn youth (or is it 'Yute')

If you build them, they will come...

[ahr]

I also have the fondest childhood memories of Sutter's on Flatbush Avenue. Whenever the family went a-visiting relatives out Queens way, we'd detour via Sutter's to pick up some cookies to bring along and some brioches and danish* to eat in the car, the prune being my special favorite.

How about someone's opening an Old Brooklyn Nostalgia Bakery, with a Sutter's counter on one side and an Ebinger's on the other?

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* Would anyone ask for "a couple prune danishes"?

[Sutter's Lives]

It's good to know a lot of people remember their favorites so fondly. I know the brioche and eclairs were popular, but some of these others are really interesting. It's good to know there's still a fan base out there. I want to make the store a retro piece; what the store was in the 50s and 60s which should be good because I have so many old pieces.

[Sutter's Lives]

I notice after looking through the site the bakery has come up in passing before a few years ago in reference to Ebinger's as well---ahr actually commented on this then---that "let Sutter's rest in peace". Well, I want to return it to its former glory and better---its too great of a place to let die forever. Had i been around things would have been different.

[ahr]

I also remember a pastry, perhaps another danish, with a wonderful cinnamon(-almond?) filling. As Bux said, Sutter's common denominator was butter: it's been so long that the details have faded, but the "danish" may even have been made with croissant dough.

Retro is good, but no one's yet indicated a yearning for the decor. More to the point, do you have the recipes? Some guy tried to recreate Ebinger's about ten years ago, but failed; he didn't attempt their entire repertoire, and, for the most part, the product was little better than Entenmann's.

That said, best wishes. Really.

[Bux]

. . .  As Bux said, Sutter's common denominator was butter:  . . . .

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There was a sign, I believe in both bakeries that was somehow updated either continuously or from time to time that said how many pounds of butter had been used since the bakery opened. Perhaps the best thing at Sutters was the pound cake. The pound cake was very buttery. As a young child I was addicted to the rather banal supermarket pound cake made by firms such as Drakes and it took a while for me to appreciate the very adult pound cake from Sutter's.

[Sutter's Lives]

Thankfully we found all the recipes for the Greenwich bakery and two branch stores. Theyre all in a little black book from ice cream to brioche.

[Sutter's Lives]

I am also very aware of how no matter what the matters only the highest quality ingredients must be used. I have the old filing cabinet from my great grandpas office at the store and his manager's stuff as well-all the old invoices and suppliers even. I also know from the 1975 menu and previous menu how they changed things and that reading right from the menu they boasted in the story of the bakery "Thousands of eager newcomers and loyal customers have crossed Sutter's threshold to partake of the joys that only choice fruits, preserves and chocolates, heavy cream, high score butter and the highest attainment of the baker's art can produce....". I know the common ingredients that made them so popular and my dad who worked at the store as a teenager told me how things were. I am going to make it just like it never closed-just picking up where it left off. But I will be sure to modernize the practices and continually update things to adapt and thrive.

[Sutter's Lives]

I would not even dare open it if I wasn't prepared to make it at least as good as it was-otherwise better off letting it be remembered well than ruined.

[Sutter's Lives]

anyone else? or else ill move on to specifics in the near future

[ahr]

Any news to report?

[Sutter's Lives]

Any news to report?

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as of now I am still in college, so nothing that directly affects the reopening of the bakery has occurred. i intend to open the store as soon as it is financially feasible, as i am aware of the skyrocketing prices to tend shop in the Village.

however, I have done a lot of administrative work such as type the recipes up, go through acres of old paperwork, invoices, mail, etc. and sort it, compile store fixtures and pictures, and deal with the legal end of things.

it turns out the greenwich store building is still owned by a relative of the same man who we rented it from (it was built for us as we were the first tenants) and it currently houses Village Paper and Party. I hope someday I can reacquire that building as the main store location. however, that will not stand in the way of a reopening.

i really wish there was some person or publication that could give me a more detailed story of this place so I could get a better feel for it.

as far as the other two locations, they were operated by my great uncle and were operated as a sort of separate operation post-1960 or so; some of the recipes vary from location to location. the bronx store, which closed in 1988 some 12 years after greenwich closed in '76 and 25+ after brooklyn, was still being run by my great aunt. i strongly doubt those stores will ever reopen unless the greenwich store becomes wildly popular. in that case it might be reconsidered.

again, if anyone has any information or stories (your personal memory, photographs, favorite item, what made Sutter's different, well-known local people who visited the store, store appearance, etc.) i would greatly, greatly appreciate it. there is only so much one can do with limited photographs and new york times articles to know the story of this institution. i'm not in this for anything other than bringing back something for the city that was too good to end forever.

[emsny]

Any news to report?

[Gantipas]

I just found this thread.It's been so many years from the last post.

Over 50 years ago , as a college student , I had a part time job selling at the front counter at Sutter's in Brooklyn.

I got my job through a friend of my father's , another Greek immigrant, who worked as a pastry chef.

Another fine person was an older man, Peter, who was one of the managers.

The products were fabulous. I never forgot the cookies, chocolate cream pies, eclairs, napoleons and buttercream slices. The chocolate fudge cake was a favorite for many kids.

Over the years I shopped at the Greenwich Village location, same great quality.

Bakeries came and went, I remember Jon Vie also in the Village.

If you open a new Sutter's would be great.

You might want to publish a book with all the Sutter's receipes. I am sure many people would be delighted to buy the book and savor the incredible pastries.

[Pre-Diabetic]

Is this related to the Sutter Bakery in the Bronx? I loved that place as a child what seems like 300 years ago.

[Gantipas]

Is this related to the Sutter Bakery in the Bronx? I loved that place as a child what seems like 300 years ago.

Yes. It is related to all Sutter's bakeries although the one I once worked when I was in college was in Brooklyn.

Sutter's was one of the greatest bakeries in New York.

Unfortunately we have not heard from "Sutter's lives" on this forum who was planning to reopen Sutter's around 2007(see above)

Hopefully one day he might either open the 'new' Sutter's and/or publish the recipes.

[Marci]

I. grew up enjoying the wonderful pastry from the Village bakery, and continued as an adult until it closed. My all to

E favorite was their Pinneapple pie. I have never tasted one as good,and would love this r recipe