Donald’s Bagels & Bites going out of business

By Dave Thompson

Published: July 18, 2008

A Lynchburg bakery served its last bagel on Friday.

Donald’s Bagels & Bites on Lakeside Drive, the only bakery in town that made its bagels in-house, was already an anomaly in an area increasingly controlled by chain restaurants, according to manager John Knaus.

“The day of the mom and pop restaurant is truly at its wane,” Knaus said.

Knaus, who has been managing the restaurant for four years, said the bakery’s owner, Dan Laslie, gave him the word on Monday that the location would be closing.

“The food service business is not as profitable as it used to be, bakeries in particular,” said Knaus.

He said that, while it was most likely economic pressure caused the shop to close, it still came as a surprise to customers and employees.

“Usually, you hear (of) restaurants, they die and it’s like sales have been declining over the years,” Knaus said.

“Our sales are great, and we’re doing way over last year.”

The restaurant, he said, was a favorite among locals, who didn’t know the shop would close until Friday.

“I had five people break down crying today when they came in (Friday)” said Knaus. “Five.”

Though Knaus said he didn’t know all of the reasons Laslie closed the restaurant, which has stood for 11 years, government subsidies on corn have cause the price of flour to skyrocket.

“We went up from 65 cents to 70 cents (for bagels), and a bag of flour went up from $9.95 to $26.95,” he said.

Knaus isn’t completely out of the restaurant business, though.

During his time at Donald’s he established satellite locations at Central Virginia Community College and Lynchburg College.

He said though the Lakeside Drive location was not doing as well as the others financially, the closing was still very unexpected.

“It’s kind of weird (closing) when you’re doing well instead of doing bad,” he said.

Laslie could not be reached for comment.