From Holzapfel Bakery to Olsen’s Bake Shop

Published February 15, 2024 | Updated June 18, 2026

February 15, 2024

Regarded by many as offering Omaha’s best donuts, Olsen’s Bake Shop has a legacy that dates back to 1912 when a native from Hungary settled in Omaha.

1953 Durham Museum photo of 24th and Vinton Streets. The building to the right is where the original Holzapfel Bakery was located.

Antal Holczappal left Hungary for the United States in 1912. After changing his name to Anton Holzapfel, he found work at the Paxton Hotel. By 1925, however, he 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 Street where he remained for five years before a fire destroyed the building.

1939 Durham Museum photo looking north towards 10th and Hickory. Hirs Bakery now Olsen Bake Shop is located in the building directly north of The Gem Theater.

The Holzapfel family was on the move again in 1947, at which point they relocated to 1708 S. 10th Street. After constructing the brick building in 1926, Frank Hirs had operated his own bakery from the location for the next 20 years. By this time, the Holzapfel 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.

February 2024 photo of Olsen’s Bake Shop.

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 Olsen Jr., grew up surrounded by bakers, having lived in the same house as his parents and grandparents. Jr. married Imelda Boehmer in 1956 and became the third generation of the family to operate the bakery in 1973. Sr. passed away in 1990, followed by Jr. in 1995.

The glass case containing breakfast pastries including donuts, rolls, croissants and other treats from Olsen’s Bake Shop.

After that, the fourth generation of the family, Mike Olsen, 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.

The line along 10th waiting to get their donuts from the always-popular Olsen’s Bake Shop.

Sitting in a nondescript building with a small retro sign that extends above the sidewalk, it’s easy to miss Olsen’s Bake Shop. What’s harder to miss are the occasional long lines that form along 10th Street. Once you make it inside, you’re greeted with two glass cases filled with donuts, kolaches, pastries, cookies, and other treats.

I can’t imagine that much has changed in the 77 years since Anton moved his bakery to this spot, nestled between two of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

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