Midtown Bakery and Café: Paying it forward in their small community

NEGAUNEE — For our final National Small Business Week feature story, we highlighted a staple in the Ishpeming/Negaunee area that is known for their cheesecake and their willingness to give to the community.

What once was an antique shop is now an all scratch bakery that has been around for 22 years. Over the years Midtown Bakery, has evolved into a café wanting to give residents more options without them having to leave town to go somewhere else.

If you have never been to Midtown Bakery one thing you have to try is their cheesecake.

“We have over 300 hundred flavors , probably one of our strangest request was Swedish fish cheesecake. So we got the Swedish fish and we popped them in the cheesecake. We’ve done carrot cake cheesecake. We’ve done jelly bean cheesecake for Easter, we’ll do just about anything. It makes it fun and its always different,” said Marybeth Kurtz, Owner of Midtown Bakery and Café.

When Marybeth the owner first moved to the Upper Peninsula from Detroit, she joined Girl Scouts where she learned one important lesson that has stayed with her, her entire life.

“I have always known that its important to be involved in your community. Now it just seems like a natural extension of being in a small town. That you support each other and that you do things for each other,” said Kurtz.

That’s why Midtown Bakery offers support to different non–profits and organizations all around the community.

“If customers don’t want their pasta salad or their coleslaw or their pickle or their slice of bread. We save the cost of giving that to the customer and at the end of each quarter we do a donation to the community. We’ve done things for Mom Prom, Will’s Warriors. We’ve done things for the Women’s Shelter. We just want to support our community as much as we can,” Kurtz added.

Midtown Bakery will be donating some food at the Women’s Center Luncheon Fundraiser that will be held at the Mather Inn on Saturday, March 12th, at 11:00 a.m.