The number of options for grabbing a familiar, laid-back breakfast or lunch in downtown Whitefish has become a bit smaller after Central Ave Bakery and Deli closed last month after 12 years in operation.  

The Dave, Doug, Mark, Ron-irrito and other comforting and affordable menu items will be missed.  

What will be missed much more, however, are the sandwiches’ namesakes – Dan, Doug, Mark, Ron and other regular customers – who have kept the mom-and-pop shop open for 12 years.  

“They were the first in today,” co-owner Ali McCarthy said after closing their doors for the last time on April 25. “They were like, where are we gonna go?”  

“It’s a place for some, where you can feel comfortable, safe,” she said.  

Standing in the deli with the chairs already drawn up off the floor, she pulls out napkins and notes from her pockets with contact information from customers.

McCarthy’s more of a socialite, front of the house person, while business partner Kyle Tody’s usually in the kitchen.  

Tody said, “one day, I’ll wake up and say, yea, I can make a batch of bagels -- I can do most of it,” he said.  

But what will hit them the most, he said, is that he can’t, without extra effort, see the regulars once again in the wooden Central Avenue mainstay.  

“I asked some people, just as a personal thing, ‘are you going to have a reason to come downtown anymore?’ and most of them said, ‘no,’” Tody said.  

McCarthy and Tody purchased the then-called Sally’s Bakery 12 years ago after working as business partners as chefs and private caterers for about 15 years.  

By technicality, they became a true mom and pop shop duo for about nine years of that, with Tody taking on a stepdad role to McCarthy’s two kids, now 19 and 20 this year.  

They made it through the highs and lows, through Covid, but the biggest challenge throughout was always finding staff with experience, they said.  

Training high schoolers to help run the shop became a tradition of sorts, they said.  

But the challenge recently, and moving forward for the town, is pricing, Tody said.  

“If we wanted to stay here and possibly buy the building, our rent was going to double. And that would put us out of business,” he said.  

They credited an “amazing landlord” with a good deal that allowed them to stay in the business as laid-back shop, they said. The landlord is selling the bakery property, and a handful of others, due to their age. McCarthy and Tody presume the building will be gutted and turned into an optometrist shop.  

With not much of a choice in staying open, the two are embracing their next opportunities.  

Tody said he plans to start school now, getting a second degree in finance or accounting, and will probably still work in a restaurant for a part-time gig.

McCarthy hopes to go back to her roots in the catering business. “I’ve always been culinary. I’m sticking with it,” she said.