The last chance for Eudora residents to purchase the beloved pastries and other baked goods from Lulu’s Bakery will be May 18, as the bakery plans to close.
Owner Cara Austin got emotional as she thought about the bakery’s journey coming to an end.
If there’s one thing she wants to say to Eudora, it’s thank you, she said.
“I have actually – I have no words,” Austin said. “There’s nothing I could say to thank them enough to say how much I appreciated them and how I love them and how much we’ll miss them because we’ve made friends and support.”
Austin and her family are relocating to North Carolina for her husband Abdul’s job. It was a hard decision to make, but Austin wanted to support her husband in the move since he has supported her business for the last decade, she said.
About 10 years ago, Austin said to her father on the bakery’s opening day that she wasn’t sure she could handle the long line outside her bakery.
Now, Austin couldn’t be more grateful to the Eudora community for their endless support for Lulu’s.
Austin went from not having any idea about running a bakery to establishing a constant and regular presence with her Saturday morning customers.
From that first weekend when she received a larger crowd waiting in line than she ever expected to now, the experience has been more than she ever expected, she said.
During an especially tough time like the COVID-19 pandemic, she worried the bakery would have to close. Time and time again, the community showed its support for her and kept the bakery going, she said.
“Every week, everybody came in and we sold out, and I even had like customers when they leave tips they leave a note that said, ‘We’re in this together,’” Austin said.
Her customers have become friends, bringing her homegrown veggies and other food and trinkets, she said.
When she started her baking journey, Austin used to struggle to bake a simple cookie. With help from family members, she finally got the hang of it, she said.
She grew up in Lawrence before attending culinary school at Johnson County Community College and graduating in 2012. When she entered school, her chef asked her why she was in school. She told him she wanted to open a mom and pop kitchen, and that’s exactly what she did, she said.
She’s put so much of herself into this bakery, she said, spending Tuesday through Saturday preparing for the weekend, making custom orders, or baking turnovers and cinnamon rolls for Zeb’s Coffeehouse.
“I feel really sad because that’s, I mean, that’s just who I am. Everybody knows me as Lulu the baker, and that’s what I do,” Austin said.
Zeb’s Coffeehouse owner Kathy Weld said Eudora will miss not only Lulu’s but also their family.
“I am so sad to see Lulu’s leaving. She’s been a staple in our bakery community for a decade,” she said.
The Eudora community has created a tradition around Lulu’s Saturdays, Weld said. The business is more than just the pastries, and is about creating family traditions together.
“I think that that’s going to be the hole that people are gonna miss,” Weld said. “She just provides that warmth for our community, you know, just bringing families together over a cinnamon roll.”
Nihal Sadik, Austin’s sister-in -law, has worked at the bakery since she was 13 years old. The early Saturday mornings and Fridays spent preparing dough have become a staple in her life. She is sad it’s coming to an end, especially since her brother and Austin – who she’s known her entire life – are moving out of state.
“I’m really sad about it, because it’s kind of like my home away from home. It’s been a very comfortable place for me,” she said. “ It’s always been my routine to always go there.”
When she first started at the bakery, she wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but now she calls Austin her mentor – crediting her with giving her inspiration to continue baking even after Lulu’s closes.
She started doing busy work at first, and said she was a horrible baker, but now she bakes and runs the counter on Saturdays. Sadik will graduate from Free State High School in a couple of weeks, and hopes to follow in Austin’s legacy by going to culinary school at JCCC.
Sadik, although not from Eudora, has gotten to know regular customers who come in bright and early Saturday mornings.
“I’ve fallen in love with baking. I love it so much,” she said. “I’m just very grateful for the community that we’ve built and I’m so, so thankful that we’ve made it through so many hard times.”
Austin isn’t sure she’ll ever start another brick and mortar bakery in her new state, but she hopes to always do something flexible out of her home kitchen.
“Like I said, I can’t thank them enough, and that we will miss them,” Austin said.
Lulu’s is open from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Saturdays.
Austin plans to have business as usual on her last open day May 18 to give Eudora one last chance for cinnamon roll Saturday.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at eudoratimes.com
To donate to support our community journalism, please go to this link: tinyurl.com/y4u7stxj
