One of Lexington’s most popular bakeries is closing this weekend. How did it happen?
When news broke late on May 5 that Magee’s Bakery in Lexington would be closing for good, doughnut and pastry lovers everywhere had one question: Why?
How could a 67-year-old thriving family-owned business go under?
The answer: Slowly at first and then all at once.
Beverly Higgins, who owns the bakery with her brother Greg, said that things may have looked fine from the outside but “it’s been hard. ... It’s been really challenging for both of us.”
Greg, 58, was in charge of the baking while Beverly, 64, ran the front side of the operation.
Since the COVID pandemic, when restaurants and bars (and bakeries) were shut down, then partially reopened, Higgins said Magee’s struggled. Rising costs also took a toll.
The final straw was a lack of workers.
“Last Wednesday I went in and the parking lot was empty, there was no one there,” Beverly Higgins said. She called her brother who told her Magee’s had to close. “The two people supposed to show up to bake ... just did not.”
They decided they couldn’t go on with just two full-time employees and the co-owners running the place. “You can’t run a food business like that, it’s impossible,” she said. “Where did everybody go?”
So they announced the sad news: Magee’s will be open one final weekend, May 13-14, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., then close for good. While they will have some doughnuts, croissants, cookies and pastries, supplies will be limited and when the flour runs out, it’s over.
It’s a chance for one last goodbye for the hundreds of people who typically come in every weekend.
The owners’ parents, Ralph and Joyce Higgins, bought Magee’s in the late 1960s from founder Leslie Magee, who at one time owned bakeries in Maysville and in Frankfort. The Lexington Magee’s opened in 1956. Greg and Beverly began working at the bakery full-time in the 1980s, focusing on recipes passed down from the beginning for items like the transparent pie.
Magee’s also was known for its butterflake rolls, mallow squares covered in the same chocolate icing as was on Magee’s doughnuts, thumbprint cookies with a dot of icing, and buttery flaky biscuits and croissants.
And if you’re wondering what the secret to the chocolate icing was: It wasn’t icing at all. It was fudge, Beverly Higgins said. They made both the chocolate icing and the caramel icing out of real sugar in a double boiler so it was extra thick and rich. In fact everything Magee’s sold was made from scratch, from the croissants to the doughnuts to the biscuits to the pies. Every cookie, every roll, every time.
They’ve had offers on buying the building, she said, and they are considering some options.
“I love my customers and will miss them the most,” Beverly Higgins said.
This story was originally published May 9, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
