Popular SLO County bakery sold again — but its iconic name and tasty treats live on
For the second time in nearly a dozen years, Carlock’s Bakery in Los Osos has been sold, and the sweet aromas of the shop’s popular products will continue to waft over the small coastal community.
Neither the bakery’s assortment of treats nor its longtime name will change, according to new owner Dante Garcia of Cambria, who bought the venerable business Sept. 19 from Meng and May Phou, who stayed on to help during a nearly monthlong transition period, he said. “Now they’ve retired.”
The Phous bought the bakery almost exactly 11 years ago from Gary and Barbara Carlock. They had purchased it in May 1965 from his parents, South County bakery owners Clyde and Margree Carlock, who had established the Los Osos shop in 1961. The Carlock family had been in the bakery business in San Luis Obispo County since 1956, and it had been young Gary’s life and career ever since he was a youngster.
Garcia declined to reveal how much he paid for the business at 1024 Los Osos Valley Road, but he pledged that he’ll “keep the Carlock’s recipes that people have liked most for years. We’re focusing on them right now,” making them the way the Carlocks always had.
Among those cornerstone products are doughnuts, cakes, Cheddar-onion bread fritters, fried boysenberry handpies, angel cookies, the Heidelberg apple pastry triangle “hat” Hamantaschen cookies, nut-edged thumbprint cookies and so many more.
Garcia said he will be adding more to the line and the shop, including “a special machine for mochas, lattes” and other specialty coffee drinks, along with new pastries and some new sandwiches beyond the chicken, pork and red bean steamed buns, German bierocks, savory filled croissants and other baked-in-dough, hand-held meals that have been on the menu for years.
The new owner also is reaching back into his previous career to add artisan breads to the line, such as sourdough, ciabatta and whole-wheat multi-grain loaves.
Real estate agent has a background in baking
For those who’ve known Garcia professionally only in recent years, his purchase of the bakery (and his experience in the field) may come as a surprise.
The 45-year-old is known best now for his expertise as a real estate agent and investor.
What casual acquaintances may not know about is Garcia’s background as a baker, knowledge he’s drawing on now in his new venture.
Garcia emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, and his first job in 1992 in Cambria was “picking peas, tomatoes and squash” on land his boss leased from rancher Jon Pedotti.
Then Garcia baked professionally for years for the French Corner Bakery in Cambria, working for Robin and Shanny Covey and then for the owners that succeeded them, Allan and Sandi Sapoznik.
“I went to the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley 18 years ago,” he said, studying artisan bread baking in the “Breads of the World” classes.
Now he, his wife Patricia Garcia and their sons, Gerardo Garcia, 22, and Andy Garcia, 17, are continuing Carlock’s tradition of being family owned and operated. Andy, a senior at Coast Union High School, works there on weekends.
Three Carlock’s employees remain on staff, the ambitious elder Garcia added, so he’ll have plenty of help that will allow him to continue with his real-estate business. He also plans to add someone to do wedding cakes, hoping to uphold a longstanding tradition created by former co-owner Barbara Carlock.
Gary Carlock happy to see bakery live on
Gary Carlock, now 81, said he’s “very happy with the new owners” and thinks they’re representing the Carlock name well.
“I’m glad to see the name continue for everybody in the county” and all across the U.S., he said by phone Tuesday. The bakery’s reputation spread in part courtesy of the many Cal Poly grads who used to load up regularly there on their study-session carbs.
Many of those students continued to be among Carlock’s “regular customers,” he said, even though they may have moved halfway across the U.S. after graduation. “Every two, three or four years, they’d come back with family or friends to show them the college they attended and the bakery” where they shopped regularly as students.
Next time they visit, they’ll be pleased with what they find there now, Carlock feels.
“Dante is using the highest quality products, like vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon, just as we did,” the retired baker said proudly as he pulled a tray of now home-baked chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. “That makes all the difference.”
And while Carlock is glad to be retired, being a baker isn’t a career that you can leave behind. He still dreams about the business, bakes at home and is ready to provide advice and help to the Garcias.
“I hope they call me many times,” he said wistfully, “any time they have questions.”
The shop is still tucked into the corner of a small strip mall in Los Osos, at the northeast corner of Los Osos Valley Road and 10th Street, next to the Volumes of Pleasure bookstore.
Carlock’s is open from Mondays through Saturdays, 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For details, go to www.carlocksbakery.com or call 805-528-1845.
