Last July I visited with Jeff and Martha Huebner, the owners of Peoria’s oldest and most beloved bakery, Trefzger’s. I had heard that they were moving the operation up the street and I not only got a glimpse of the new place, they gave me a behind the scenes tour of the store that they’ve been operating out of for years. You can read that installment by clicking here and now let’s go back, ten months later and see what kind of progress is happening in what is going to be the new Trefzger’s Bakery!
Drive-by shot of Trefzger’s Bakery! Let’s park and start today’s sweet journey!
And here we are at Trefzger’s Bakery. If you come here at Christmas time or near any holiday there’s always a line out the door. It’s 12:23 on a Tuesday afternoon, you wouldn’t think it would be that crowded in here at this time of day, but let’s go in and see...
Wow, it never fails to amaze me, there’s always a packed house in this place, waiting for their turn to buy some of this bakery magic that they make and bag and box in here! I’m meeting Jeff and Martha, but I’m a little early as always, so let’s take a look at some of the amazing bakery items behind the counter here in the front room. By the way, it always smells so wonderful and fragrantly sweet in here!
There’s homemade bread, cookies, pie slices, more cookies, pie tarts, even more cookies, cakes and the legendary Trefzger’s thumbprint cookies. And as you can see...
The crowd is not dying down, it’s actually getting bigger in here! Peoria loves Trefzger’s, that’s for sure!
And here’s the smiling duo who makes it all happen here on a daily basis, Jeff and Martha Huebner! Jeff and Martha are really nice people and it’s a pleasure to see them again!
We decided to head out the back way to check out the new Trefzger’s building up the street off Prospect and on the way we ran into these four pretty women who skillfully bake the cakes that Peoria loves to eat! From left: Kayla, Ali, Desiree and Sarah. Nice to know that the bakery goods aren’t the only sweet things here in Trefzger’s!
July 16, 2015
I thought I’d show some pictures I took from my post last year and do a little “before” and “after” thing today. So this was the building last summer. This is a historical building that has been standing here since 1895. It was originally called, The Hobart building and in this photo it looks a little worse for the wear. Well, check it out now...
May 24, 2016
As you can see, they’ve sandblasted the dirty, white paint off of the outside walls and they’ve restored the building back to the original brick walls. It looks like a new building! Let’s take a look at some different sides of the building...
This place is huge and I can’t get the entire building in one shot, I need to bring my panoramic lens next time...oh, wait, I don’t have a panoramic lens. Never mind.
River City Construction is doing all the remodeling work and the outside looks fantastic and I can’t wait to see what they’ve done inside!
Check it out, as they were working on the outside landscape they discovered this train track and it’ll be part of the outside landscape design. How cool! Jeff and Martha also told me they’re saving a lot of the wood that was taken out of the building and are going to repurpose it back inside of the building to keep as much of the original material inside as possible. Here they are inviting me inside, but before we go in, let’s go back to the past for a minute...
July 16, 2015
I took a bunch of pictures of the inside of the building last July that I didn’t publish because I was hoping to get a return visit which I did today! So, let’s take a look at how thing were in here ten months ago. It was a little bleak and dark in here, but check it out today...
May 24, 2016
Wow, they’ve really made big progress in here! The whole place has been cleaned up and it’s so much brighter in here. Jeff told me that as soon as you walk in, the front room will be the bakery storefront area where you can buy the bakery items. And while this won’t happen right away, they’re thinking about adding a lunch menu after they get the kinks worked out of the new building when it opens. The back area will be the kitchen area and offices and the kitchen area will be open to the public, so you can watch the baking magic happening before your very eyes! It’ll be like watching a local version of The Ace of Cakes, right here in Trefzger’s! There’s me in my hardhat on top of a lift and in the bottom photo, Jeff wants to show us something outside.
This is going to be the parking lot for the special event floor which is going to be on the second floor of the building. These are the stairs that will lead to this floor, which people will be able to rent out for wedding receptions, cocktail parties, corporate events, birthday parties and any type of social party you have in mind. Let’s go and take a look!
Right now the working name for this space is, Trailside Event Center. As you can see it’s plenty spacious and Jeff said they’re going to work with local caterers who will provide food for the events. They’re going to refurbish the original wooden floor in here and in the bottom photo you can see a small slice as to what the floor will eventually look like in here. This whole space is very impressive and I can’t wait to see the finished product!
Jeff and Martha showed me this painting that was uncovered as they were restoring this part of the building and it caused a little bit of an uproar until Jeff discovered that the artist was Richard Reichard, who painted this picture of a Duryea Motor Trap here in the ‘70’s. You can read the whole story in the PJ Star right here. Jeff and Martha said they’re going to make a door out of the painting, so it will be preserved here in the building.
Thanks so much to Jeff and Martha for this wonderful, updated tour of the new Trefzger’s space! They’re really making spectacular progress and they’re hoping the grand opening will be sometime in September. They told me I can come back in August for another updated tour and photos, so stay tuned for that and we’ll see you all tomorrow!
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