Beloved Berkeley Bakery Closes, Cites Low Sales Amid Political Backlash

BERKELEY, CA — Nabolom, a beloved bakery and pizzeria that called Berkeley home for five decades, closed on Sunday.

Nabolom owners Julia Elliot and Sabra Stepak announced the closure in a somber social media statement, where they claimed sales had dropped 20% after being kicked off Instagram for reposting a photo of a BART cart tagged with a phrase demeaning Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

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The duo said they also experienced backlash over a "defund the police" mural and "Teach Palestine" poster. Nabolom was later boycotted online over their anti-zoning position, Elliot and Stepak said.

"We've always wanted to just have a neighborhood bakery and be authentically ourselves, so others can also be authentically themselves," the duo said. "We're not in a popularity contest. We did our very best & have left everything on the field."

In the post, Elliot and Stepak reminisced about visiting Nabolom during its glory days in the 1980s.

Elliot's mother worked there, according to the post, and when it was on the brink of closure in 2015, Elliot and Stepak went all in to "restore it to that glory."

It appears Elliot and Stepak are holding out hope that someone may want to keep the legacy alive the same way they did.

"We love Nabolom and the community around it," Elliot and Stepak said in the post. "We still hope a young energetic, experienced food lover who can afford it wants to take Nabolom to the next level and save this treasure for future generations and our still amazing community."