Josef Otto’s Westgate Bakery to The Cake Gallery

September 10, 2024

Decades before opening the bakery that would become The Cake Gallery in Omaha, Josef Otto was held captive as a prisoner of war while fighting for the Polish, French, and British Armies during World War II. After being freed, the German native found himself in the Netherlands while serving with the Allied Forces. It was here that he met his wife, Eve Jansen, a native of Holland, in 1944.

Despite not speaking the same language, the two married following the end of the war in 1945. At the time, Europe was in shambles and offered limited economic opportunities. As a result, the two would immigrate to the United States by 1954 before eventually settling in Omaha. They raised four children: Joe, Lia, Ed, and Sandy.

The Cake Gallery’s longtime home at 84th and Hascall Streets in Westgate Plaza.

Josef hated nothing more than laziness, so when he opened his own business at 50 years old in 1967, he was committed to making it a success. His Westgate Bakery was located at 8247 Hascall Street. Its focus was on European pastries and donuts. His son Ed Otto, meanwhile, was pursuing higher education at Oklahoma State Tech University when he was elected president of the baker’s club in 1972.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Ed returned home and the two worked side by side until Josef retired in 1982. After the younger Otto took over the family business, he changed the name to The Cake Gallery in 1986. The intention was to emphasize wedding cakes as its specialty while also setting it apart from other bakeries in town.

Looking inside The Cake Gallery’s 84th and Hascall Street location.

While operating the bakery, Ed spent 35 years researching how brides make their decisions for which wedding cake to purchase. From that research, he wrote a book, The Ultimate Bride’s Guide for Buying a Wedding Cake, and founded the American Wedding Cake Sales Academy to train bakers from across the country. At one point, he even explored franchising The Cake Gallery to larger cities including Kansas City, Denver, and Minneapolis, among others.

An expert in wedding cakes if there ever was one, Ed also developed a trademarked “ULTRAmoist” cake brand for which the bakery became known. It grew into the largest cake boutique in the Midwest with a team of more than 20 employees.

The Cake Gallery’s new loation in Bel Air Plaza. Photo courtesy of The Cake Gallery.

The couple celebrated their 50th anniversary together in 1995, and after Josef passed away at the age of 86 in 2003, Eve published her autobiography titled Our Times, Our Lives: The Jozef and Eve Otto Story in 2004. She had a desire for younger generations to understand how drastically life changed with the onset of the war and the difficult adjustments people often had to make afterward. Eve continued to live another 15 years before passing away in 2019 at the age of 94.

After more than 58 years operating at Westgate Plaza in the very location in which Josef started the business, The Cake Gallery was forced to relocate after the strip mall was purchased by Dakota REIT, a Fargo-based real estate investment company. In 2024, Ed relocated the bakery to Bel Air Plaza at 12100 West Center Road, Suite 102.

2018 pick for the best wedding cakes by TheKnot.com. Photo courtesy of The Cake Gallery.

It took surving a war, crossing an ocean, and overcoming a language barrier for the Otto’s to start their legacy right here in Omaha. One that Ed has grown from a neighborhood pastry shop to a cake boutique that draws customers from all over and is consistently named “Best of Omaha.”

Please feel free to comment to share your thoughts and memories.

Until next time, keep exploring!

More pictures

Eve Otto’s autobiography is available on Amazon. It may be available locally but I haven’t confirmed.

1969 Durham Museum photo looking north on 84th Street. Westgate Plaza is to the right behind Texaco. While I couldn’t find old photos of Westgate Bakery, this gives a glimpe into what the area was like.

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