Rick Baker begins his workday at 11 p.m. He spends his nights and early mornings at Dick’s Bakery, which he co-owns with his brother Andy. “Tonight we’ve got 75 birthday cakes [to make],” he says on a Thursday. The number sounds daunting, but for Baker and the rest of the crew, it’s a fairly standard amount for the weekend. Baker attributes his Protestant work ethic to his father, the original owner of Dick’s Bakery, which opened in 1953. Occupying a quaint brick storefront in downtown Berea not far from the Baldwin Wallace University campus, the bakery is unassuming but delivers large quantities of danishes, coffee cake, doughnuts, muffins, strudel, pies and its famous date nut cakes topped with French buttercream frosting. Around the holidays, they work overtime to make buckeyes and more than 20 varieties of Christmas cookies such as chocolate chip and pecan raisin. Still, Baker’s favorite thing to bake is the butter strudel, which is only sold during the Christmas and Easter seasons and comes in four flavors: poppy seed, nut, apple and cherry. 70 Front St., Berea, 440-234-1192, dicksbakeryberea.com
Our Pick: Bust into a butterfly danish ($.90), twisted dough filled with your choice of nuts, poppy seeds, cheese, raspberry or apricot.
Best Bakeries: Dick's Bakery
All nighters in Berea cook up danishes, coffee cakes and more at this bakery, which has been open since 1953.
