By Ana Ruiz Brictson | Staff Writer
After nine years of serving the Waco community with baked goods and a place to gather, Lula Jane’s will be closing coming this Thanksgiving.
According to bakery owner Nancy Grayson, Lula Jane’s will be celebrating its nine-year anniversary on Saturday.
Grayson said she decided to close Lula Jane’s because they were becoming short-staffed. With only five workers, she said they have great amounts of work for such a small number of people.
“We’re not short on business,” Grayson said. “We’re short of people, staff.”
Grayson said one of the things she will miss from Lula Jane’s is the people.
“I’m gonna miss the people, absolutely,” Grayson said. “It’s a gathering place. It’s intended to be a gathering place where people come and they meet each other and they commune over great food. And that’s what’s happened, and it is the people that I will miss.”
Grayson said one of her main focuses at the bakery is welcoming everyone to come in, enjoy the food and have some coffee along with it. She said all of their baked goods are made from scratch and are her own recipes.
Currently, Grayson has been working on a cookbook that will contain most of the recipes for the pastries sold in the bakery. She said that the recipes are online but that she is also working on the cookbook so that people can have them.
Houston Baylor alumna Belle Bressler said Lula Jane’s was one of the first places that she went to when she was a student. She said the place stood out to her given that it seemed very different from other Waco businesses.
“Before all of the Magnolia and boutiques popped up, a lot of people would study in there, get coffee,” Bressler said. “It was nice and homie, very comfortable.”
Bressler said the food was also really great. She said that she would get her morning coffee and that she remembers having overnight oats that came in Mason jars.
Bressler said that her graduation cake was from Lula Jane’s and that she remembers specifically a delicious vanilla frosting that came with it. She said she was surprised to hear that it will be closing.
For its closing day, Grayson said there will be no big events to commemorate the bakery.
“It’ll be a regular day for us,” Grayson said.
