The last, small neighborhood bakery in Key West, La Dichosa, 1205 White St., closed its doors in July and some say it’s the sign of the times, while others call it a sad comment on Key West’s future.

“The loss of the neighborhood bakery is a loss of Key West culture,” said Supervisor of Elections and fifth generation Conch, Harry Sawyer. “People met there in the mornings, got all the neighborhood gossip, found out who was getting married and who was having a baby. You knew who needed work and where people had gone on vacation. My mother or father would come home with the fresh bread and we’d find out what was going on in the neighborhood before leaving the house.”

Sawyer said he remembered growing up and seeing bakeries all around Key West.

“There was Molina’s by El Siboney, on Catherine Street, and Perez, on White Street at Virginia,” he said. “In the ‘50s Fire Chief Bum Farto’s wife worked at Perez and, if memory serves, she made damn good cakes. Even after Perez closed, my mother and others ordered cakes she baked at her home.”

Reflecting on his youthful memories of bakeries made Sawyer remember the neighborhood coffee stands that have also dwindled.

“We used to stop and get buccis when I was a Key West police officer,” Sawyer said. “At least there are a few of them around and they’re still meeting places where, today, old Conchs get together and even trade Key West stories with newer residents. Those stands and bakeries were our social clubs. A lot of Key West history there.”

Sawyer said Five Brothers, 930 Southard St., is the last of the small Cuban coffee shops that served the local neighborhoods as a grocery store too.

“We still have the stands, like M and M on White and even Jon’s, which used to be a grocery store as well, when I was growing up,” he said, referring to Jon’s at First Street and Flagler Avenue.

Monroe County School Board member Andy Griffiths grew up in Key West and has his own idea of why the bakeries are closing.

“When I was kid we lived on Stock Island and my mother would get her Cuban bread at Winn-Dixie, where Publix is now,” Griffiths said. “Back then, La Dichosa supplied the big markets with Cuban bread.”

Cuban bread has to made fresh daily, Griffiths said, and the new generation doesn’t want the responsibility that goes with the bakery.

“People don’t want to takeover the business because they have to be up at 4 a.m.,” Griffiths laughed. “You want your Cuban bread soft and warm with your café con leche at 8 a.m., so preparations start long before that.”

Fortunately, for Cuban bread aficionados, a couple of local businesses have stepped up and taken on the responsibility of getting that warm bread to the coffee drinkers of Key West.

Richard Tallmadge, owner of the Restaurant Store and Coles’ Peace, 1111 Eaton St., saw an opportunity and took it when a local restaurateur asked the bakery to make Cuban bread.

“We searched for an authentic Cuban bread receipt before we did anything else,” Tallmadge said during a tour of the Coles’ Peace bakery. “We learned a lot, even though we have been artisan bakers, about Cuban baking traditions.”

Two important ingredients, Tallmadge acknowledged, are salt and pork lard.

Because of the bakery equipment set up at Coles’ Peace for artisan breads, they can only produce an average of 212 loaves of Cuban bread daily.

“We hand make the bread from scratch,” he said, “but can only put four loaves to a rack, so our quality is good, but quantity is low.”

Coles’ Peace uses a four-deck steam injected oven for its artisan bread and has adapted it for making Cuban bread.

“The four-deck oven has no affect on the taste and texture of the bread,” Tallmadge said. “It is just a smaller oven than the usual rack system that the Cuban bakeries used. The rack system allows you to bake a lot more bread.”

Locals have discovered the bakery because of the Cuban bread in the morning and its luncheon sandwiches in the afternoon.

“We are getting a reputation in the neighborhood,” Tallmadge said. “In the morning, I am seeing many of the same people here buying bread, getting a coffee, and talking.”

Why did an artisan bakery turn to Cuban bread?

“When La Dichosa closed, Fred Solinero from El Mason de Pepe asked me if we could make Cuban bread,” Tallmadge said. “We promised Fred we’d try.”

And the restaurateur likes the end product.

“Excellent,” Solinero smiled. “It is the closest bread we were able to find to La Dichosa’s. We are very happy with it.”

Alton Weekley, from Fausto’s Market with locations on White Street and on Fleming Street, said both market locations sold Cuban bread from Coles’ Peace.

“It has the flavor and texture of the bread we used to get from Rodriguez’s when I was a kid,” Weekley said, speaking of another defunct Key West bakery.

Coles’ Peace also sells Cuban bread to Five Brothers.

Julio De La Cruz, owner of El Siboney, 900 Catherine St., searched for Cuban bread after La Dichosa closed.

“I chose Cuban bread from Croissants de France,” De La Cruz said from behind the counter of his restaurant. “The customers ordering our sandwiches are happy with it.”

Richmond Arce, catering and sales manager at Croissants de France, 816 Duval St., said the restaurant has taken Cuban bread orders from local restaurants since La Dichosa closed.

“We have accounts with El Siboney, B.O’s Fish Wagon, Sandy’s, and the Hog Fish on Stock Island,” Arce said.

Customers can also by a loaf of Cuban bread at the counter of Croissants de France.