The oldest kosher bakery in Oakland hits the market for $1

Grand Bakery, a Jewish institution, is holding try-outs to select a new owner.

Grand Bakery, Oakland’s oldest kosher bakery known for its challah, has just gone on the market for one dollar.

Late Wednesday afternoon, owner Sam Tobis announced the news in an email, seeking “someone passionate about Jewish baking to take the reins of the Grand Bakery in Oakland – available to purchase now for a mere $1!”

Why is the price so low? “Because I’m less interested in profit off the sale and more invested in finding the right individual to carry on the beloved bakery’s 60-year legacy,” Tobis said in a statement. “I’ve maintained the Grand legacy for seven years but the time has come to pass it on to the next set of loving hands.”

Tobis purchased the bakery in 2017 with the intention of “keeping the Grand legacy alive for future generations,” according to a statement on the bakery’s website. “But life sometimes has other plans.” Tobis also recently became a partner at Berkeley’s Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen, and juggling the two appears to be difficult.

“[F]or the last two years I’ve been trying to steward both,” he wrote in an email. “Being a part of the Bay Area’s Jewish food community is my greatest joy, and I wish I could do it all, but I can’t.” It’s time to hand over Grand to the next loving pair of hands.”

The Mercury News has reached out to Tobis for comment, and this story will be updated once he responds.

The bakery first opened as the New Yorker Bakery in 1961, then as Ernie’s Strudel Palace, and finally as Grand Bakery. Its products can be found in stores ranging from Safeway to Lunardi’s to Piazza’s Fine Foods throughout the Bay Area. Many synagogues, community organizations, and Jewish day schools are among its clients.

According to a 2014 interview with former owner Bob Jaffe in J. The Jewish News of Northern California, the baker produced “more than 120,000 macaroons and 350,000 challah loaves every year, as well as 20,000 sufganiyot on Hanukkah and tens of thousands of hamantaschen on Purim.”

Are you interested in the $1 sale? Fill out this Google form and Tobis will take a look at it.