Ideal Baking Company — Restaurant in Lakemore

From early ages I would enjoy Ideal bread, but sometime after the pandemic they must've lost their original baker.

I've worked at many, many restaurants and at one time I was a strong advocate for ideal, helping a few local places find Ideal bakery rather than the standard bread we'd have from other places. The last place I worked at, every week we had one issue or another with the bread. it was a headache and the prices seemed to be the same where as One bun would be fine, another would be a literal pebble, and one was half the bag. I chalked it up to 'Production issues it happens.' But now they're too good for walk-ins. I live alone, I don't need 10$ of bread cause it will just be a waste, (even though that's basically two loaves now) and I prefer not to RE-freeze bread if i can help it. and the last several times I've gotten bread from Ideal it has been frozen. Say what you will but freezing bread, to unfreeze, to refreeze ruins its composition making it worth less time money and effort to just grab a regular loaf off the shelf at marcs. I know the one brother never cared for the bakery and my heart goes out to the brother who still does care.

If you guys aren't going to have walk-in's you should probably have that on the door outside. I was used to just walking in and buying a loaf and being on my way, since Ideal has been open and now I'm the idiot because things changed? 9 months ago? Don't make people feel stupid for that? Worker told me off, which I get but I been going to this place longer than most this staff has been working here. Rightfully got me never wanting to come back. Kind of sucks feeling like you're the problem at an establishment that meant so much to you. I'd go lower but not all the bread is bad. The brioche is OK, although I don't think it's actual brioche, and multiple times in multiple restaurants we definitely got the hamburger buns (different color, you can feel the difference when you cook over 400 burgers a week) and even at one point only got slider buns. We found that our 'fresh bread' was molding rapidly, whenever we didnt refreeze it. Often times the bags were secured at all and our products would come to us sweating 'from frozen', probably why it began to mold I guess. Either that or they make enough in mass & sell oldest stock for rotation. Focaccia is more like Italian, the Italian is basically white bread, the French bread is the same as the Italian. Health nut is fine when it's not frozen, but it always is. Focaccia is supposed to be so much more flavor, supposed to have hints of herb, but it must be dehydrated herbs they're using now cause it is not fragrant, nor taste anything among the herb variety, imo. I wouldn't bother with the Luigi buns or hot dog buns. Was a nightmare for one cookout with the buns. half were squished and the Luigi buns, gave me literal ptsd they were so hard to work with. Jewish Rye is a banger though. Won't ever knock that, just wish it wasn't frozen all the time.

Long story short, Ideal now a days is a beautiful example late stage capitalism. With super high demands and no stopping, seems like they hiccupped somewhere and haven't ever fully recovered.

Ideal is a shadow of what it formerly was.

Also I live nearby and the workers are disrespectful as all get out. Peeling out of the place & speeding off. This is a residential neighborhood.

I tried to communicate with them & they glossed over my actual issues rather than anything. So to make it short. There's bread you can get cheaper with the same quality if not fresher made, without any of the problems. But if it wasn't for the crap attitudes and bad service I'd never of found better...

I stopped in to pick up some bread and they said you now have to order online before coming in. So the man told me to go to my car, place an order online, then come back in and he could fill the order for me. After I go to my car and place the order online, I went back in only to be told I would have to wait until tomorrow to pick up my order. I return the next day to pick up my online order and there was look of surprise when I told them my order name…there was no order waiting for me. The baker then walks into the freezer, grabs my order, and hands me loaves of frozen breads. I thought I ordered...

Shame on the new owners of this place. I've known this family for many many years. While the original owner was sick with cancer his brother ran the bakery, often working 12+ hour days. After the owner unfortunately passed away a year ago, his 3 children took over and recently fired their 61 year old uncle, who helped run the bakery for 33 years. They manipulated him into signing a paper accepting 2 weeks severance pay which was actually a resignation letter they wrote up. This man can't even collect social security yet. A disgrace to their generation and the legacy of...