Back from our vacation and ready to explore more of the 614!

We visit this east-side Columbus staple at least once a month for its delicious doughnuts and figured it was time to highlight them! Resch’s bakery has been operating for over 110 years as a family-owned bakery, making the history seem endless (my favorite!). The bakery has made it through multiple wars, the Great Depression, and now COVID. They attribute this success to the families that have made a visit to Resch’s bakery a tradition over the years. Let’s see how far the business has come by taking a step back in time.

The first store was opened in 1912, a few years after Frank Resch and his nephew Wilhelm migrated to the United States from Germany. The first store was a small location on the south side, where the two baked fresh bread from their apartment a floor above. After eight years, Frank turned the reins entirely over to Wilhelm. Wilhelm’s sons, Frank and William, started working their way up through the bakery and took over from their father after World War ll. By this time, they had expanded from freshly baked loaves of bread to doughnuts, cookies, and cakes. In the 1950s, William sold his half to his brother for complete ownership, and the company expanded, opening a new location four miles away in 1960. Through the generations, the children and grandchildren of the Resch family have worked their way up from mopping and doing dishes to learning the baking process. In 1990, the original location closed, leaving the Livingston Avenue location as their main storefront. The family still owns the business, now six generations later, and keeps true to their original promise of quality over quantity. Although bakers are busy most of the morning, keeping their shelves stocked!

The current location on East Livingston still transports you back in time before entering the front doors. The neon sign above the front door glows red from open to close. As you walk under the sign, the smell of freshly baked dough bombards you – in the best possible way. After taking in the smells, one of the first things to capture your attention is the beautiful cherry wood shelves and counter that separate the kitchen from the store space. Hand carved by a family friend, they have stood the test of time and always take my breath away. If you decide to come during the weekend, expect a wait! Even when we visit early on a Wednesday, we sometimes have to take a ticket from the dispenser and wait for our number to be called. The wait will allow you to peruse their prepackaged cookies and bread or the cakes and doughnuts in the lit cases built into the counter. Josh loves their custard-filled doughnuts, while I tend to lean toward their cinnamon rolls. It’s a tradition for us to buy two dozen doughnuts for the office once a month! Having never gone into wholesale, visiting Resch’s is the only way to enjoy their fresh baked goods. However, there are whispers of a second location in Gahanna someday. We have our fingers crossed, although I may still have to visit the current site just to look at that carved wood that “just makes you want to cry.”