Sugaree Baking Co. in Dogtown will cease retail operations at the end of 2022

Sugaree Baking Co. has announced that it will cease retail operations at the end of 2022. The beloved Dogtown bakery’s final day of business at its Tamm Avenue shop will be Dec. 30. Sugaree will continue to fulfill wholesale orders into 2023.

Owners Pat Rutherford-Pettine and Jimmy Pettine plan to retire and sell the building that houses Sugaree. Rutherford-Pettine said anyone with an interest in purchasing the building should contact broker Lawyers Realty Co. A deal could be struck to fold the business into the sale of the building, so there is a possibility that Sugaree could continue under new ownership. 

Rutherford-Pettine launched Sugaree in 1996, starting out in the basement of the former Keith’s restaurant in Chesterfield. Three years later, Sugaree moved to its current location at 1242 Tamm Ave., a site that has housed bakeries for 120 years. “It's always been a bakery,” Rutherford-Pettine said. “The grandson of the original bakers lives next door.”

Sugaree is known not only for its pies, cakes, cookies and seasonal baked goods – gooseberry pies for Thanksgiving, Christmas cookie boxes – but also for Rutherford-Pettine’s window displays. “My flowers are very important that I put in the window boxes,” she said. “I wanted this to be that place that people could say, 'Hey, that's the bakery' and look at the window. … It's like the old days when you go down to Famous-Barr and look at the window. We all grew up with those things.”

Among the wholesale items Sugaree bakes for clients, one favorite among the Sauce team is the coconut chiffon “cloud cake” at Olive + Oak (also sold at Sugaree). “After all these years of baking cake, it's the only cake I want to eat,” Rutherford-Pettine said. She added that wholesale items will continue to be available at least until the Sugaree building is sold. 

Sugaree has very much been Rutherford-Pettine’s baby, but she paid tribute to her husband, Jimmy, for the part he has played in the bakery’s success. “These are my things that I've developed, but he has been my big support,” she said. “Jimmy’s the one with the culinary degree, not me. … Without his abilities, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing.”

Rutherford-Pettine said she’s grateful for the support of the Dogtown community and her customers. “My customers are going to be devastated. I know that,” she said. “But they've seen me – I'm 74 years old last Saturday. This is pretty old to still be doing what I'm doing. It's time for us to relax a little.”

Giving up Sugaree after almost three whole decades won’t be easy for Rutherford-Pettine. She admits to shedding a few tears recently, realizing that she was putting up Halloween decorations in the bakery for what would be the last time. “I am very sentimental about this bakery,” she said. “It's what I achieved in my life. And I never knew I would be doing this. I wish my dad had been here to see it. He never got to see it, you know, and he would have adored what I did.” 

Keep an eye on Sugaree’s website for weekly menus and other updates, which will continue until the shop closes at the end of the year.