Pacific Grove in a panic over Pavel's closure.

Residents lost their collective strudel earlier this week as news spread of the temporary closing of beloved Pavel’s Backerei. City officials said on Monday that the bakery had to cease operations so that the building’s owner, Gary Delahanty of Carmel, could make major repairs to a non-functioning employee bathroom and a leaking lateral sewer line that runs to Forest Avenue.

Pavel's owners Paul and Johanna Wainscoat announced the shut-down Monday afternoon on their Facebook page, and afterward, dozens of impassioned customers declared on social media sites they planned to call and write the city, with some calling for speaking at the Dec. 7 City Council meeting. 

Delahanty and property management company A.G. Davi estimated  the repair would be done by late Wednesday or Thursday.

Wainscoat worried that even if crews met that timeline and bakers were allowed to return Friday, the business wouldn't reopen until Tuesday, Dec. 13, serving up its famous flaky croissants and giant donuts—not to mention all the holiday cakes and cookies normally for sale in December. 

“What they don’t get is our style of baking; it’s a three-day process, so by the time we get in there we have to start over,” Wainscoat says.

He estimates he had to leave $10,000 worth of product on the table Monday afternoon, when Pacific Grove Police escorted him out of the building after city building officials tagged the building as “dangerous.”

Total losses, if the business is closed a week, could be around $35,000, he says. Wainscoat is paying his employees during the shutdown.

However, Wainscoat says, if the repairs take longer than this week, and he has to remain closed and release employees, Pavel’s may be gone for good.

“If we lose our employees I won’t go back in there,” he said.

The response from customers has been swift and fierce.

“No donuts the size of my head??? That cannot be…” Bob Connolly wrote on Facebook.

“That’s horrible news and shame on your landlord for putting you in this position,” Karen Klemens posted.

“Could 2016 suck any more? Hope Pavel’s Backerei is back soon! We need you!” Frank Chezem wrote.

Comments on Facebook totaled more than 100 by Tuesday afternoon, with more than 60 shares and 200 reactions. Pavel's lovers were exhorting one another to call and email city officials, or better yet, show up in person at Wednesday's council meeting.

City Manager Ben Harvey said as of late Tuesday afternoon he received a few phone calls and somewhere between 10 to 20 emails. His response: He’s just as motivated as others Pavel’s customers to see the bakery reopen as soon as possible.

From Harvey’s desk on the second floor of City Hall, he has a clear view of Pavel’s down the street, and he watched Tuesday as plumbers ripped up sidewalk and tunneled down to fix the leaking sewer pipe. Harvey said he visits Pavel’s two to three times every day, Tuesday through Friday, getting a coffee and croissant in the mornings, and whatever pre-made sandwiches of the day are left by the time he gets there at lunchtime, along with another coffee and a cookie. He brings his own coffee cup.

“I’m alway upset when they’re closed, it’s always a bummer,” Harvey says. “So there’s no louder cheerleader than me.”

According to Harvey, there has been a long-term dispute between Pavel’s management and the property owner that came to a head recently when the Monterey County Health Department got wind of the non-functioning employee bathroom. The city soon got involved, and once city Building Official John Kuehl determined repairs had to be made, Harvey said they had no choice but to shut down Pavel’s until repairs were complete.

“The business owner asked to remain open through the holidays, but we couldn’t look the other way for the next few weeks,” Harvey says. He said he made it clear to property manager Jeff Davi that Pavel’s is a “beloved and revered local business,” and that repairs should be completed quickly and done thoroughly—no Band-Aid fixes.

“I hope Pavel’s is back by Friday working,” Davi says. “We’re going as fast as we can.”

Wainscoat and Delahanty tell different stories about the problems with the sewer line and bathroom. Wainscoat claims Delahanty did not properly fix the sewer line back in 2009, but Delahanty says the repairs were sound. Delahanty says more recently he's tried to send in three different plumbers who Wainscoat blocked from doing any work.

The two also differ in their accounts of how the work needs to be completed, with Wainscoat standing by the opinion of a plumbing contractor he hired, who wanted to dig up the floor down the middle of the bakery and replace the pipe the week of Jan. 2, 2017. Delahanty says, "It's not his building," and that digging up the floor isn't needed; the plumbers doing the work this week are using a fiberglass sleeve inserted into the original cast-iron pipes.

Where the two men's stories are the same is that Wainscoat himself called the Health Department, which started the chain of events that led to the closure. 

Wainscoat says he was trying to protect himself by informing the Health Department of his plans to have the line replaced once the holidays were over, and that an official informed him he could wait three weeks to start the work. 

At around 2pm Monday, County Health Department officials, city building officials, and Pacific Grove Police showed up at the bakery. The building was tagged and Wainscoat was escorted out.

"He's closed because he called the Health Department and he called the city," Delahanty says.

Customers were greeted Tuesday morning by a plumbing crew tearing up the sidewalk and a letter from A.G. Davi stating the closure was “in no way a reflection” on Pavel’s.

One longtime customer, Alvin Siekert, stepped over and around workers’ tools to peer inside the dark store.

“I love Pavel’s,” Siekert says, estimating he’s in the bakery three times a week. “Everything is so well preserved and so tasty.” He says he told Paul Wainscoat once that he should rename the bakery Pavlov’s, "because I start drooling every time I come by.”

Wainscoat says he's conflicted about whether to sue the city over the closure, because he'd be suing the residents who are his loyal customers. He is getting legal advice, according to a Facebook post Wednesday morning:

"On the advice of our attorneys, we will not be attending the City Council meeting tonight and confronting the city," Wainscoat wrote. "We certainly are not discouraging any of you in expressing your disappointment to this situation that did not have to happen. We are still waiting word as to when we will get our bakery back."