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BUSINESS BEAT: Willie’s celebrating historic milestone on Lower Johnson

125-year-old Johnson Street building the original home of B.C.'s first commercial baker
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Doug King

The average customer coming in for the early bird breakfast special or fresh-baked goods may not pay much heed to the date stamp high atop the facade of Willie’s Bakery and Café.

For owner-operator Doug King, however, the 1887 mark on the Lower Johnson building is a sign of a link to the past he actively tries to maintain. From the antique wooden floors, old-style counters and interior brickwork, to the historic photos and early morning smell of fresh baked goods, visitors need not stretch their imagination to picture original baker Louis Wille pulling hot loaves out of a brick oven.

“It’s definitely one of our bragging rights,” King says of the building that houses his eatery as well as Isabella’s Guest Suites upstairs. “It’s got this long and wonderful history.”

When German immigrant Louis Wille and his wife, Augusta, expanded their bakery operation from New Westminster to Victoria in 1887 it began a decades-long family tradition that lasted until 1976.

A return to part of that tradition came in 1999, when the space was reopened as Willie’s Bakery – the spelling change honoured the son of new owners, Mike and Shellie Gudgeon.

While locals know Willie’s today as a place to find numerous eggs Benedict options and all-day breakfast, King, who took over in 2005, admits the connection to the building’s original use is a good drawing card for visitors to the city.

“Tourists are the topping on the dessert for us,” he says.

That tourist market is tapped in other ways by King’s company. Beside the guest suites upstairs, in the former longtime home of Louis and Augusta Wille, they also operate the café in the Royal B.C. Museum, and the diner car snack bar outside the museum in summer.

– Willie’s Bakery and Café, 537 Johnson St., 250-381-8414, williesbakery.com.

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