Grace Pastries, a memorial to past confections

I drive down Jefferson Blvd often and sometimes I pass by the former Grace Pastries near Crenshaw Blvd.

 It's been closed for decades but the sign is still up. I have heard rumors of why it remains in this limbo real estate but I am not sure what the truth is.

What is true is the memories it holds for me and my family.

I have fond memories of going here with my family; mom, brother, aunts and/or grandmother for a quick purchase for treats but mostly for a cake for whatever the big party was that night. 

Every birthday cake my brother and I ever got to blow out the candles on was from Grace Pastries.

Between Grace Pastries and later the Helms Truck, that was where i got most of the sugar bounty of my youth.

Grace Pastries is indicative of the Japanese American story. Details can be read here: LINK

My favorite quote from this article is:

"According to Izumi, what really saved the bakery from mediocrity and turned it into a real enterprise was knowing the value of improving any product. "You have to have determination to make it better, " says Izumi, and for 39 years he persevered and like the rest of the JA community, made things better than before. Meanwhile, his reputation as a master baker grew."

The thread between Grace Pastries and Angel Maid Bakery is very magical to me. That is to say, by the time I had kids, Grace Pastries had been closed for a very long time. We spent a lot of time on the Westside so we naturally gravitated towards Angel Made Bakery. Pretty much every birthday cake my kids belw out the candles on was from Angel Maid. My daughter would marry the son of the founder of Angel Maid and it's this thread that smoothly connects Grace with Angel Maid for our family.

The infrastructure of any community includes a bakery/ pastries place, often more than one. When both families picked up the pieces after the WWII imprisonment, this was a profession that worked for a few of them.