The Olde Tyme Bread House in Citra, Florida is a flashback from the 1950s. The 48 ft. by 28 ft. modular restaurant just off Interstate Highway 441 is painted ‘dusty rose’, a designer shade of pink. The handsome wooden plank walkway to the front door is as pleasant for the able bodied as for the handicapped. And the food is as good as it gets.
The parking lot is 100 percent unfenced dirt, good and flat with a shade tree or two. A smiling pink plyboard pig on the railing holds up a ‘Barbecue’ sign in hopes of luring customers.
“I’ve never worked in a restaurant, so I don’t know how it’s supposed to be done,” says owner operator Judy McGee. “I never go to another restaurant.”
“I just always wanted to bake. I wanted a bakery. I was baking all the time,” says Ms. McGee. “I always wanted a big table to cook on. So my husband made it. My husband has made every table in the place.”
John McGee also made the counters, chairs, benches, the front desk and just about everything else. But not the dough.
Dough at the Bread House is made fresh everyday the old fashioned way: By hand.
“My bread stays two days,” says Ms. McGee.
“Then it’s discarded. There are no preservatives. The pizza places roll stuff up in dough that has no flavor at all. We make our own bread or it can be a loaf of Stromboli,” she says.
“Our dishes are very labor intensive. And if it don’t look right, it’s not going to taste right to the customers,” she says. “Somebody actually sneaked my Stromboli recipe. I had to change it.”
Judy McGee of Citra and Norah Cossak of Ft. McCoy are chief cooks, bottle washers, order takers, and phone answerers. They are the floor moppers and dishwashers. And they keep a watchful eye on whatever is in the oven.
“We experiment a lot. If it turns out wrong, we sit down and start laughing,” says Ms. McGee.
“After my stroke, I tried to get people to help. I thought I paid them good money. Now Nora helps me. She’s my friend,” she says.
“I don’t get many people in to eat. Today we had three. But we get nice people. If they get grouchy, they go elsewhere.”
The Bread House is one of those things you put in the back of your mind and keep it, says Jim Deal, a Home Depot representative traveling from Jacksonville.
“I’ve seen this place a million times. Today I stopped. I’m glad I did. I love Stromboli.”
The Bread House aims to please, says Ms. McGee.
“We gave up trying to make money five years ago.”
