by Linda Tyssen

Kathy Frank had opened the shop before 5:30 a.m., as she's done for more than 25 years. She put the coffee on and prepared for the regulars to arrive. Only this Friday, July 17, was to be bittersweet, the last day for business at the Eveleth Italian Bakery. "It's a sad day," Dominic Rauzi of West Eveleth said as stepped inside and waited for the good-natured banter he's come to expect.

Then came Louie Parlanti and Vic Buffetta, Gary Skerjance and John England. Minus some who would often join them, the men gathered at the sturdy chrome table next to the wall of newspaper clippings telling the bakery's 110-year history. It had been decades since baking was done in Eveleth, but the guys knew that fresh goodies — long-johns and glazed doughnuts, prune tarts and cupcakes and jelly-filled bismarks — would be waiting, brought over from the Italian Bakery in Virginia.

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Source: http://www.virginiamn.com/