Nabolom Has Closed, and Its Recipes Are Looking for a Baker Again

Nabolom Bakery & Pizzeria at 2708 Russell Street served its last pastries on Sunday, October 18, after 50 years in the Elmwood. Co-owners Julia Elliott and Sabra Stepak have said they are open to selling the business and its recipes. The Elmwood has seen this happen before. Nabolom closed in 2015, and the cinnamon twists came back seven months later because a buyer paid for the recipes. On that record, the recipes are the part of Nabolom most likely to outlast the storefront, and they are available again.

The last Sunday on Russell Street

Once word of the closing got out, the bakery was busier than it had been in years. Stepak told SFGate that on the Friday before closing there was a line from 8 to 11 a.m. and the pastries sold out. "We've probably had our most viable days in 10 years, probably three times more than we usually sell," she said.

On the last day, East Bay Times columnist Martin Snapp arrived at the 8 a.m. opening and found the line already stretched around the block. He reached the counter an hour later. Elliott and Stepak had set a limit of five pastries per customer, so there were still cinnamon twists left when he got there.

A packed last weekend didn't change the weekly math. Stepak told SFGate that chocolate costs had tripled and that "My PG&E has gone up like 70%," and she said Berkeley's bakery scene can feel like "three bakeries are opening every month." In a statement reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the owners said Nabolom depends on volume while ingredients, utilities, labor and capital improvements keep getting more expensive. They also said they had tried raising prices. "We raised prices and the gross stayed flat," they wrote.

In the same statement they compared their situation to the original collective's final years: their workers "can't afford to live in Berkeley and work at a bakery," skilled bakers are hard to hire, and capital improvements pay back slowly. Those same pressures are part of why the bakery closed the first time.

The first time, a buyer paid for the recipes

Nabolom opened in 1976 as a collective founded by Adele Kohl, Nora Chamberlin, Susan Talpers and Lynne McMasters. It came close to closing in 2004, when the Chronicle reported it was nearly $30,000 in debt and two months behind on rent. It made it through that year. It didn't make it through 2015, when four collective members left within three months. Berkeleyside reported that their departures left the remaining members unable to keep the doors open. The last day was Sunday, August 2, 2015.

The rescue came from someone who knew the place. Elliott had worked at Nabolom and had spent 12 years at the Cheese Board Collective. After she read that the bakery was closing, she contacted the collective and offered to buy it. She and Stepak paid $80,000 to acquire the recipes and to cover debts they believed the collective owed. They worked with bakers to bring back the longtime favorites and reopened on Monday, February 29, 2016, 211 days after the last day of the collective.

The recipes were what made the reopened bakery recognizable as Nabolom. Its new bakers, Aron Ford and Sasha Crehan, were named in Berkeleyside's 2016 reopening story. Snapp wrote that the new owners brought back the old recipes and improved on them, and that they hired bakers for their baking skills, which made the pastries more consistent from day to day. Here is what a successor would be buying today, going by local press coverage:

• Cinnamon twists. Snapp called them the bakery's biggest seller by far: "loaded with cinnamon, brown sugar and barely enough flour to all hold together."
• The breakfast case. Croissants, chocolate-almond croissants, almond bear feet, brown sugar snails, cream cheese twists, orange cardamom knots and pistachio snails with chocolate chips.
• Breads and Danishes. Challah, fruit Danishes, multigrain bread and cheese Danishes.
• Pizzas. Vegetarian sourdough pizzas made with seasonal ingredients, added after the 2016 reopening and later a signature of the bakery.

As the Chronicle reported, the owners described the kind of successor they hope for:

"We still hope a young energetic, experienced food lover who can afford it wants to take Nabolom to the next level and save this treasure for future generations and our still amazing community."

Snapp closed his column by saying Elliott and Stepak are open to selling Nabolom and its recipes, and that he'd let readers know if anything happens.

Where to get your pastries in the meantime

The 2015 gap lasted seven months, and nobody knows how long this one will last. Until a buyer appears or doesn't, the closest bakeries are the ones that already know the neighborhood well. One of them is just up College Avenue from Russell.

Baker & Commons is the closest. It has the longest history of the group and the latest hours. Its site lists 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. According to the cafe's own history, Ozzie Osborne turned the corner into a community gathering place after World War II. Kara Hammond is now the owner and general manager. Hammond managed the Elmwood Café before her ownership group reopened the space as Baker & Commons in 2018. That's another College Avenue room that changed hands and kept its regulars, as Berkeleyside reported at the time.

For a Thanksgiving table that used to get its challah or Danish from Russell Street, two bakeries have posted holiday menus. Fournée's menu lists Thanksgiving specials: a $40 apple pie with organic apples and oat streusel, a $40 pumpkin pie made with Full Belly Farm honey squash and brown butter, gougères at $3.25 each, an $11 cheese-and-onion loaf, and a six-pack of duck-fat brioche rolls for $16. The posted deadline is "11/18 or soldout," so call the bakery to confirm before you count on it. Fournée's posted hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. Sweet Adeline's order page has a "Thanksgiving Pre-Orders 2026" section, and its regular menu includes chocolate cream pie, apple crumble pie and Mom's pumpkin pie.

The rest of College Avenue through early December

Nabolom closed shortly after a new storefront opened a few blocks south. Berkeleyside reported on October 15 that Elmwood Subs had opened at 2992 College Ave., at Webster Street, serving breakfast bagels, sandwiches and avocado toast. Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore at 2904 College Ave., right next to Baker & Commons, has these upcoming events on its calendar:

1. Friday, November 6: Chef Eric Bédiat's 60-Minute Culinary Demonstration & Book Signing, scheduled for the evening.
2. Thursday, November 12, 7 to 8:30 p.m.: Matt O'Hara presents "The Flying Death."
3. Saturday, December 5, 2 to 3 p.m.: Kirk Lombard meets readers and signs The Shadow Stream in the store.

The Elmwood has had Nabolom pastries for 50 years, minus a seven-month gap in 2015 and 2016. Until a buyer for the recipes comes forward, Nabolom's breakfast case is gone, and Baker & Commons at the corner of College and Russell is the closest place to get a pastry.

Caitlin Crawford keeps track of how College Avenue storefronts change hands, and she's paying attention to who might take over Nabolom. If you're thinking about what the Elmwood's commercial blocks mean for your own home on these streets, Caitlin Crawford would be glad to talk it through. Request a personalized consultation.