Time's running out for treats at Schorr Family Bakeries in Pittsburgh

The clock on the wall shaped like a slice of bread represents the end of an era.

It’s time to stop baking.

For 45 years, the Schorr family has been kneading dough for their community bakeries with locations in Pittsburgh’s Observatory Hill and West View locations.

Saturday will be the last day for the Schorr Family Bakery.

The bakeries are best known for homemade cakes topped with buttercream icing, as well as glazed donuts. Customers have been lining up at 5:45 a.m. to get the donuts that always sell out quickly, even quicker once news of the closing got out.

The stores are closing because owner James Schorr has decided to retire, his daughter Kaitlyn Schorr told the Tribune-Review on Tuesday. The timing is right because her dad needs surgery on his foot, which will require six weeks to six months of recovery.

James Schorr’s father Tom Schorr started the business more than four decades ago and still occasionally works there.

“My dad has dedicated so much of his life to this bakery,” Kaitlyn Schorr told the Tribune-Review on Tuesday at the Observatory Hill location. “He gets up at 11:30 p.m. and he’s in here at midnight and bakes all night. He’s been working in pain. It’s a tough business. He has put everything he has had into this.”

She said he is open to selling the company but that most likely wouldn’t happen for a few months, if at all.

“I will miss the cakes and definitely the doughnuts,” said Krista Elway, who has worked there for 13 years. “I will never get another glazed doughnut like the ones we make here.”

Customers have been coming in and sharing stories how the bakery has been part of their lives for celebrations and family gatherings for parties and anniversaries, Kaitlyn Schorr said.

“There have been a lot of emotions the past few weeks,” she said. “It’s bittersweet.”