With a legacy that goes back more than a century, Olsen’s Bake Shop’s story started after Antal Holczappal left his native Hungary for the United States in 1912. After changing his name to Anton Holzapfel, he found work at the Paxton Hotel.
By 1925 Anton opened Holzapfel Bakery at 2317 Vinton Street while he lived in the apartment upstairs with his wife Mary and their children. In 1942 he relocated his bakery near the stockyards at 27th and J Streets where he remained for five years before a fire destroyed the building.
The Holzapfel family was on the move again in 1947 at which point they relocated to 1708 S 10th Street. After constructing the brick build in 1926, Frank Hirs had operated his own bakery from the location for the next 20 years. By this time, the Anton family lived upstairs with their daughter, Marie, and her husband, Louis Olsen, who attended the Cooks and Bakers School while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in San Diego.
Louis went to work with his father-in-law after returning home to Omaha. The bakery was ideally located next to a streetcar stop and situated in the Forest Hill neighborhood between Little Italy and Little Bohemia. After Anton passed away in 1967, Louis took over and changed the name to the business we recognize today, Olsen’s Bake Shop. His son, Louis Jr., grew up surrounded by bakers, having lived in the same house as his parents and grandparents. Junior married Imelda Boehmer in 1956 and became the third generation of the family to operate the bakery in 1973. Senior passed away in 1990, followed by Junior in 1995.
After that, the fourth generation of the family, Mike, has been running the bakery. The long-running business has been a mainstay along an ever-changing 10th Street corridor that once saw the Gem Theater next door to the south, as well as a fire that caused its neighbor to the north, Cascio’s, to rebuild. While some sources claim the bakery opened in 1942, my research shows that it’s more than 100 years old.
Olsen’s has partnered with other local businesses, including nearby Orsi’s, by allowing it to use their ovens following a fire in 1997. More recently, it teamed up with Stella’s, which places its popular burgers on the bakery’s equally popular glazed donuts for its donut burger special on Tuesdays. Its glazed donuts were also used by Infusion Brewing to create a Donut Milk Stout in 2022.
I imagine that not much has changed since the days Anton moved the bakery to this location 77 years ago. If you are not familiar with it, it is easy to miss the nondescript building with a small retro sign that extends beyond the exterior wall above the entryway. What is harder to miss are the occasional long lines that form along 10th Street. Once inside, two glass cases are filled with donuts, kolaches, pastries, cookies, and other treats.
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