In its 49th year, Holly B’s Bakery — the oldest continuously run, food-purveying business on Lopez — is passing to new ownership, nine years after Stephanie and Rory Smith took over from founder Holly Bower. New owner Margot Kahn Case is excited to continue Smith’s practice of successful innovations while honoring the bakery’s legacy.

Case’s love for baking derives first from family ties — specifically, from her grandmother, who immigrated from Poland to Ohio, where Case grew up. “She always had food ready, she carried it with her to give away,” Case reminisced. “She loved feeding people.” Macaroons, rugelach, quick breads: for Case’s grandmother, “Baking meant showing love.” As an adolescent, Case asked her grandmother to teach her to bake, realizing, “If somebody doesn’t bake with my grandma, we’re going to lose these traditions.” Professional training in food never occurred to Case; she simply enjoyed making people happy, as her grandmother had.

Born and raised in Ohio, Case moved from Cleveland to Seattle with a friend after college in the late ’90s, and both were instantly smitten with the region. “I didn’t know a soul west of the Mississippi,” she reported, “but the feeling was, ‘This is where I want to be.’” The two women found Lopez Island through a coworker who let them stay in a cabin on Lopez Sound Road. Later, Case began visiting regularly with then-boyfriend, now-husband Scott. Holly B’s Bakery, as it has done for thousands of visitors before, became a regular part of their Lopez experience.

Case and her college friend both had kids around 2010. When Holly Bower first put the bakery up for sale in late 2015, they were highly tempted to buy the bakery together, but their kids were too small, and their jobs, as well as their spouse’s jobs, held them in Seattle. But in 2024, the Cases are in a different situation. Their son is now a teenager, and remote work is a possibility.

Case has spent most of her career creating or re-vamping programs centered around creativity and making communal spaces. For her, feeding people is an extension of such work. “The bakery is really a community place,” she said. “My motivation for buying the bakery was really about making sure this gathering space didn’t go away.” Case is full of ideas for both maintaining and innovating the bakery’s role in the life of Lopez and has already met with several community partners about events, classes and collaborative possibilities. She also realizes that she has plenty to learn about the basics of working in food service and running a small business. But, she said, “That’s part of the fun. I’m honestly sad if I’m not learning new things.”

Speaking of learning, Stephanie Smith had one of the steepest learning curves possible for the new owner of a small food business: COVID-19, which broke out after only four years of ownership. What was her biggest learning?

“Flexibility,” she answered, adding, “All of us in this community, we faced the same challenge: just because we’d always done things a certain way, didn’t mean that was going to work.” Smith cites both individuals and community organizations for keeping everyone afloat. In her experience, “If you invest in community, it will take care of you.”

Smith is planning to enjoy staying on Lopez and working with her husband to finish their house. Of course she’ll be looking for new work at some point, but in the meantime, she hopes to make the most of her new freedom on weekends. Perhaps, Smith joked, she might even find out what’s happening on the other islands!

Case’s goals for Holly B’s echo some of Smith’s experience. She intends for the bakery to remain, “First, a place where you want to come to enjoy something delicious; second, a lovely place to work, where staff can learn and grow; and third, a catalyst for gathering the community.”

With the opening expected in April, Case advises checking the Holly B’s website and social media for the exact date. She wants to reassure aficionados that their beloved old favorites will still be available but points out that three of her own personal favorite flavors — cardamom, tahini and pistachio — were not part of the traditional Holly B’s lineup before Stephanie Smith took over. The bakery will see several changes in the next few months, including a new head baker, and tradition and innovation will doubtless continue as part of the mixing, shaping and rising in Holly B’s kitchen.