Hye Quality Bakery, a key meeting place for Fresno’s Armenian community, nears its end
As a writer, my best stories, I’m told, are those born from the heart, the kind allowing readers to cry or hunger for something lost, forgotten or missing. During this “keep your distance” and “stay at home” COVID season, my personal salvation has mostly come from rekindling memories — the kind often taken for granted but nevertheless permanently etched into my heart. Not so much those carrying grandeur, glitz and fanfare, but the everyday variety: simple, basic. And human.
Like memories of picking sunflowers from my grandmother’s garden on Butler Avenue. Placing them in the red Folger’s coffee can she used as a vase. The taste of fresh homemade lavash bread baked in her tiny oven and the sacred ritual of wetting it, placing it between two dishtowels, making it soft and pliable. My grandmother called it parag hatz, (thin bread). Its taste resembled Holy Communion.
Traditional Armenian households have a lavash drawer — a wide, thin cabinet for storing cracker bread. Mine, like most, is never empty. A little lavash, a few strands of string cheese, a demitasse of coffee. Pure heaven.
A few weeks ago when I learned through the grapevine that owners Sammy and Paula Ganimian were closing the family business, Hye Quality Bakery, after 63 years, my heart sank to my knees. For years I have loved walking through their old-fashioned screen door and instantly being transported back through time: an experience of coming home. Like countless others, I stop by for cracker bread and a five minute over-the-counter chat with Paula and then stay for fifty — exchanging family news, bragging about grandkids, sharing aches and pains, and confessing our hearts about the journey so far. Theirs started in Boston — the same city where my grandparents landed after arriving at Ellis Island in 1921.
Yervant and Grace Ganimian came to the Valley and established Hye Quality Bakery in 1957. Both had held demanding jobs in Boston — Yervant was head baker at Beth Israel Hospital and Grace managed the family owned pharmacy. Their original plan called for Yervant to pursue his trade as a master baker, freeing his wife to raise their children at home. But fate called and they instead established their own business, Hye Quality Bakery. First, in a 1,200 square foot rental space (located at 537 L St.), and since 1978, in their own state-of-the-art facility located at 2222 Santa Clara St., behind the red brick Armenian church, lovingly known as Holy T. According to Sammy, it would be here that the future generation of Ganimians would “inherit the earth, make lifelong friends, break bread with customers, and make national distribution a reality.”
How does one summarize a lifetime of “Hye Quality” — the perfect double entendre and a true hub and gathering place in the heart of Fresno’s Armenian Town? If you stand in the parking lot, you can see the “Armenia” sign (Santa Clara Street between O Street and Van Ness Avenue) placed in honor of “a people who have a long, prominent history here in the Valley.”
In a tearful and stream-of-consciousness-style visit a few days ago, I leaned over the counter one last time with a few questions for Paula, Sammy and daughter Joy, curious about standout moments, notable customers, plans for the next chapter.
Famous (regular) customers have included author/playwright William Saroyan, artist/sculptor Varaz Samuelian, Broadway’s Carol Channing and more recently, the Kardashian sisters. With a twinkle in his eye, Sammy reminds me that Fresno legends Leon Peters, Steve Pilibos, Ara and Haig Yazijian, Frank, Ralph and Roxie Moradian, Joe Josephine and Ed Derderian belong at the top of the list. “They were our true encouragers,” he says rather emphatically. “We are here today because of them.”
From Ralph’s Markets to Costco, from California to New York, from Saroyan to Kardashian, three generations of Ganimians have loved being part of their customers’ lives. That, they insist, is what they will miss most. As we talk, a steady stream of customers interrupt this quasi-interview, each walking through the screen door echoing similar words, “We can’t believe you’re closing. What will we do without you?” There is an exchange of hugs, tears, and last-minute orders of cracker bread, string cheese, cheese boregs and Paula’s homemade lamajoon.
During my visit, I learn that Hanoian’s Market in Fresno was the first to carry their cracker bread (delivered in the back of their ’64 Lincoln). Their bread was also featured at Disneyland, Planet Hollywood and Southwest Airlines.
The Ganimians are the original soft cracker bread creators and responsible for introducing the world to “Hye Rollers.” Paula describes countless food shows across the U.S. where she demonstrated the art of making her famous Hye Rollers (also known as caravan sandwiches). My mouth waters as she describes each layer and the tedious rolling process. They custom-make their bread; available in light, thick, well-done, seeds or no seeds (again, my mouth waters).
As I am leaving, Sammy asks me to wait. Paula whispers, “No seeds.” Handing me a five pack of their famous “parag hatz,” my eyes blur with memory – of my grandmother, of our long ago walks to the bakery, of lunch hours visiting over the counter, and the once again reminder of how customers become family; how we are all related.
Before leaving, Joy shows me a book resting on a table near the exit inviting customers to share bakery stories before Dec. 30, their last day. These memories, she promises, will serve as a forever reminder that “to break bread together is to share life and friendship, our richest source of nourishment.”