It’s been more than three years since Fahmee Bakery staff churned out delectable Jamaican patties and coco bread in Scarborough after a devastating fire, but the long-standing business is set to reopen its doors at a new location on Saturday.
Starting at 12 p.m. and running until 9 p.m., the business will be hosting a grand opening celebration at Malvern Town Centre on Tapscott Road just west of Neilson Road.
“It is one of those so traumatic experiences. You can’t really remember it that well. It’s just been really compartmentalized, and it was just there one day and one day it was gone,” Faiz Abdella told CityNews during a tour of his new space on Friday, referencing the fire that destroyed his old business location.
“I think the stress was the biggest thing because at the same time when you lose a place you have loans you got to pay off. You have people who are relying on you. You have people keep calling you (and) telling you to open the store.
“At that point, I was averaging seven days a week of working for about five plus years. I was just burnt out completely and I was just really down bad.”
It was during the early morning hours on May 5, 2022, when emergency crews were called to a plaza beside Brimley Road north of Finch Avenue East for a fire. The blaze was concentrated at the Fahmee Bakery location.
Abdella said he and his staff were forced to abandon the location and relocate to a smaller, secondary location on Lansdowne Avenue.
“If I didn’t have Lansdowne, I’d probably go completely bankrupt. So Lansdowne really just kept me alive and made me realize how to do more with less, and how to really just streamline a few things. Before we were definitely more inefficient. As a bigger place, we had a lot of moving parts. It was tough to maintain,” he said.
The bakery owner said the fire forced him to learn hard lessons.
“Make sure you update your insurance. We were underinsured when the fire happened, which is why that took us so long to get back,” Abdella said.
“You are in charge of creating and building a business, and it’s very tough to do when you’re stuck in the kitchen or when you’re stuck under production line. So focus on the gifts that you do have, which is advertising and marketing, and try to expand the business and delegate tasks that are not for you or you’re not the best at.”
Fahmee Bakery has a storied history in Scarborough. Its origins date back to the 1980s. Abdella’s father owns Bakery On The Go at Bathurst station and sold the bakery’s patties.
When there was an opportunity to purchase Fahmee Bakery in 2017, Abdella ultimately won out to take control. He set out to modernize the business by standardizing recipes and production, and embracing technology as part of its operations — even as COVID-19 battered the business a few years later.
As for reopening, Abdella said he was inspired to set up shop at Malvern Town Centre after seeing that the former McDonald’s location on the south side of the mall was up for lease.
He said he rented the space a year ago and since then, a complete rebuild of the space was needed. A larger-scale production kitchen that could accommodate the large demand for Jamaican patties and coco bread was added.
“It’s 90 per cent my father’s work and effort that brought us here,” Abdella said.
“That year was just a lot of learning, getting the permits done. You know, the regular contractor stuff, delays, delays, delays.”
Setting up in the Scarborough neighbourhood of Malvern, he said it felt like a natural place to consolidate and reopen.
“We hope … we can show that Malvern is a combination of different cultures. Fahmee Bakery is a combination of different cultures,” Abdella said.
“As long as I’m operating this place, as far as Fahmee Bakery is concerned and with its growth, we’re going to spread that message that we must amplify cultures and we must combine the best parts of them and make something new.”
