Meet Your Neighbour: Bakery By The Bay

Notice some extra traffic on School House Lane? Wonder why people are disappearing off the main street and returning with delicious baked goods, maybe the biggest cinnamon rolls you’ve ever seen? Stacey and Steve Bowden of Bakery By The Bay might be able to answer that.

Bakery By The Bay opened in Collingwood in January of this year, but the story starts far before the storefront, “Stacey was an at-home baker,” Steve says. “We had a lot of customers coming to our house, and she always wanted a shop.” In 2020, they made the leap to start a storefront in Stayner, leaving their previous careers behind. “We looked at each other like ‘what have we done?’” he laughs. “We put everything into it.” What they did was build exactly what people were craving. “People wanted real food, not processed frozen stuff.”

That idea of “real” runs deep. Stacey was born and raised in the area with family roots stretching back generations, tied to the shipyards. Many of the recipes used today come straight from that history. “A lot of these are Stacey’s great-grandmother’s original recipes,” Steve explains. “They’re family recipes.” That dedication to tradition shows up in everything they do, from their cinnamon buns, the ones that “kind of put us on the map,” to classics like butter tarts, date squares and pies, all made entirely by hand. “We don’t use machines,” Stacey says. “Absolutely nothing comes out of the box or can; it’s much more time-consuming, but it shows in the product.”

Steve believes their move to Collingwood feels less like an expansion and more like a natural step. “We’ve spent our Summers in Collingwood for years.” When the opportunity arose to open downtown, it made sense not just because of demand but because of the community itself. “Welcoming,” he says without hesitation. “Seriously, everyone has been so supportive.” That support goes both ways, too. “It’s never just about us. When one business does well, everyone can do well.” 

Step inside Bakery By The Bay and you’ll see the space leans into a vintage, lived-in feel, more homey kitchen than modern cafe, with plans to keep layering in antiques, family pictures and stories. They want it to “feel like something familiar.”

With Mother’s Day around the corner, you might want to follow the crowd. Visit Bakery By The Bay at 116 School House Lane or on Instagram and Facebook @bakerybythebay_collingwood