VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - For 36 years, Angie's Bakery in Virginia Beach has been offering a taste of home for the prominent Filipino-American community of Hampton Roads. The owner says business got even busier during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Angie's was one of many local food businesses News 3 anchor Anthony Sabella highlighted during Takeout Tuesday segments as the pandemic shut down restaurants in 2020.
Four years after that original visit, plastic shields still line the glass case of sweet and savory Filipino favorites like hopia, ensaymada and more.
It's a pandemic-era safety measure that hasn't changed. Ken Olaes is still the owner of the business, his family having purchased it from his uncle who named the bakery after his wife, Angie.
Olaes says she passed away in the 1990s, but the business with her name has never been busier. Like many businesses post-pandemic, staffing remains a challenge.
“During the pandemic, we probably had six or seven people in the kitchen. Now I have 20," said Olaes. "We got very busy (during the pandemic), being an essential part of the community.”
It's a community that touches the News 3 family — Meteorologist April Loveland's fiance is Filipino and she joined Anthony to pick up desserts for a big family dinner at her home, plus a tour of the kitchen at Angie's.
“Tell me a little bit about being able to showcase desserts and baked items that you would see in the Philippines," April asked Olaes.
“What’s been important to me is keeping the tradition alive with the families here," he replied. ”People’s fathers coming here before the pandemic and then, since they were older, I noticed that their kids started coming here to pick up their bread.”
And Olaes is keeping the tradition alive through the bakery's recipes. A pot of ube — a sweet potato-like Filipino root vegetable known for its vanilla taste — boils on the stove, and he says the thousands of hopia his staff makes weekly comes from his mom's recipe.
Even then, it's not always enough, as customers heading home from work often clean out the remaining stock at the end of the day.
Safe to say Angie's is here to stay, offering comfort for all who walk through the door.
Angie's Bakery is typically open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located on Holland Road and Northwood Drive.
