Flourtown Bakery an 'Old Fashion Destination'

Besides a few loose drinks, the doesn’t sell anything besides baked goods. According to owner Frank Alio, it isn’t an accident.

“We don’t sell candy, we don’t sell potato chips and we don’t sell anyone else’s thing,” he said. “We don’t get into anyone else’s business. We’re a bakery and that’s what we do.”

The Flourtown Bakery, , has been in the area for 33 years. Alio, a fourth-generation baker, says that the shop’s appeal is in its old-fashion methods.

“We do 99 percent of our stuff from scratch: no mixes, nothing frozen,” he said. “We’re one of the few places that still makes its own doughnuts. Our butter cookies are made with real butter. We don’t skimp.”

Alio says that the bakery’s insistence on making its goods from scratch makes it a destination for shoppers.

“It’s worth a trip to come one time,” he said. “A nice time to come here is for Chirstmas. We make all our own gingerbread houses. We’re known for our cookies and our cakes: we sell tons and tons of cookies.”

Alio says that its old-fashion methods are how the bakery competes with hard economic times and increased competition.

“There’s not too many of us bakeries left,” he said. “We had to whether the storm with supermarkets and one-stop shopping places.”

He cites the bakery’s personal touch as a reason for its success.

“Pricewise, [supermarkets] are starting to out-price us in some things,” he says. “We can do things that they can’t. We can cater to you, make special orders and we can do that because it is what we’re all about.”

Alio runs the Flourtown Bakery as a family operation. His mother and cousin help him make the bakeries goods daily and his two college-aged daughters help out around the bakery when they can. Alio says he likes the work, but he suspects he might be the last of the family’s bakers.

“I’ve got two daughters who are on scholarship at college,” he said. “We’ll probably be it, though. It’s a good life, but it’s a lot of hours.”

Despite the work that goes into the bakery, Alio said that he wouldn’t run the shop any other way.

“It’s hard and its more work, but it pays off in the end,” he said.