Fairview Park resident Michael Roth, 5, enjoys a donut at Becker’s Donuts and Bakery, which recently reopened at its old location on Lorain Road after an 18-year hiatus. (Photo by Kevin Kelley)

A FAIRVIEW TRADITION RETURNS:
Family-owned donut shop sets up at 1950s location
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Jan. 18, 2006

While many mom-and-pop stores have gone belly-up in recent decades due to competition from national chains, one family-run business with a long history in the city is making a comeback.

Tom Becker

On Jan. 3, Tom Becker, 35, reopened Becker’s Donuts and Bakery, a business his father and uncles operated in the 1950s. The donut shop is even at the exact location at 22088 Lorain Road where Becker’s served customers from 1957 through 1988.

Becker said his donuts are seeing popularity with customers both old and new.

“We were gone 18 years,” Becker said. “It’s amazing. Everyone who has been here is just ecstatic that we’re back.”

Brothers Bill, Louie, Alex and Joe began the business in the 1950s on the south side of Lorain Road. Later, younger brothers Bob (Tom’s father) and Randy joined. After Bob returned from military service, he purchased the business from Bill and moved Becker’s to its once and current location. When Bob died in 1978, his wife, Darlene took over and kept the store running until they lost their lease in 1988.

In the early 1990s, Tom went to work at a second Becker’s Donuts which had been opened in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood by original brother Louie and was later purchased by Tom’s bother Bob, Jr.

Tom was casually looking last year at opening a west side location near the original site. He was canvassing possible properties in Fairview Park when he bumped into a man named Terry Buddie. It turned out Buddie, owner of Gift Hut and Flowers, also owned the store where Becker’s was located for over three decades. Buddie himself recalled going to Becker’s as a child to buy donuts from Tom’s father.

What’s more amazing was Buddie said the former Becker’s Donuts site was vacant and available.

Fairview Park resident John Roth and his son, Michael, enjoy donuts inside Becker's Donuts and Bakery, which recently reopened at its old location on Lorain Road after an 18-year hiatus. (Photo by Kevin Kelley)

Tom jumped at the chance to return to the store his parents ran for so many years.

“It’s nice because it’s coming home,” he said.

“I started here when I was about four, standing on an ice crate icing donuts,” he recalled.

Becker’s is still a family affair, with Tom’s wife, Sue, and his sister Linda now working at the store. His mother, who Tom credits with keeping the business going for the 10 years after his father’s death, even comes in to work in the mornings.

Although the new Becker’s has been open less than a month, Tom reports customers from previous decades have rediscovered the store and are bringing their children and grandchildren.

“People come in and say it was tradition to come in Sundays after church for donuts,” Tom said.

Inside, the store has a 1950s motif, with posters of that decade’s icons such as Elvis Presley, James Dean and Lucille Ball. Framed photographs of Tom’s father and other Becker family members from the 1950s also dot the wall.

“Everything is the same,” Tom said. “The colors — everything.”

But can an independent donut shop compete with national chains such as Dunkin Donuts, Donut Connection and Krispy Kreme?

“I do the very best I can do every single day,” Tom said, “and I put quality first.”

For Becker’s, quality means making everything from scratch according to a secret family recipe.

“We have our own recipe and we do it our own way,” he said.