Features

Nabolom May Survive By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday August 23, 2005

The Nabolom bakery will cease operations as a cooperative Sept. 1, but one cooperative member has made an offer to keep the ovens running as a private business. 

Crow Bolt said he has secured an $80,000 loan from a private financier to cover the cooperative’s debts and stave off eviction proceedings. Nabolom’s landlord, Carrie McCarthy, has given the bakery until Sept. 1 to repay thousands in back rent. 

Nabolom, founded 29 years ago, has been beset by management troubles and on the brink of bankruptcy for the past year. 

Bolt declined to disclose the identity of his financier. “It’s someone who has faith in this bakery, but not faith in collectives,” he said. 

Besides his offer, Bolt said Nabolom has received offers from a former pastry chef and the former owner of a bakery in Fremont. Nabolom’s board reviewed the competing offers at a meeting Monday night. The board has until Sept. 1 to select a bid, Bolt said.  

Bolt appears to have an inside track on buying Nabolom since his name is already on Nabolom’s $3,886 a month lease and he said the landlord would have to honor it. 

Last week, Miette’s Cakes, which has a shop at San Francisco’s Ferry Building, withdrew a bid to buy the bakery after McCarthy asked them to pay $5,000 a month, according to Bolt. 

Should the board select his bid, Bolt said Nabolom would continue operations with a similar selection of baked goods and consensus-oriented management style. 

“It would no longer be a collectively-owned bakery, but it would still operate as a collective,” Bolt said.s