Story by : Megan Quinn
Senior Reporter
The Claxton Bakery in Claxton, Georgia has been providing its famous fruitcake to the people of Claxton and the world over for 108 years.
When you travel to the bakery, you may assume a small mom-and-pop type of place with a front window and treats displayed inside to attract the public, but the Claxton Bakery is a fully functional fruitcake manufacturing facility.
“We are the Fruitcake Capital of the World. We are in full production from Late August to December, baking 24-hours a day,” said Paula Claxton, the quality manager at the bakery as well as a third generation Parker involved in the bakery.
The bakery has a small storefront in Claxton as well as a large selection of treats and memorabilia on their website.
The story behind the Claxton Bakery is one of the American dream, and a successful one at that. When Savino Tos, an immigrant from Italy, came to the United States in 1908, he had one goal in mind: to own his own business.
Tos arrived in New York City, like most immigrants at the time, but he quickly became tired of the busy city life and decided to make his way down to the significantly slower paced South.
Tos stumbled upon Claxton and decided that the small town was where he would open his own bakery, the Claxton Bakery. Seventeen years later, Albert Parker, only 11-years-old at the time, entered the bakery in search of a job.
After working at the bakery for years, Parker bought the bakery from Tos in 1945 at the end of World War II and Tos subsequently retired.
Before the war, the bakery was making a multitude of sweet treats like ice cream, breads, and fruitcake, but because of the economy after the war, Parker chose to turn the bakery’s focus towards their best-selling item, the fruitcake.
Parker was able to build a reputation for his fruitcake that would withstand the test of time as well as make it through every season. Fall and winter were historically the peak seasons of the year.
The bakery has expanded its production to include southern staples such as pecan pralines, peach preserves, Vidalia onion salad dressing and several variations of their classic fruitcake.
“The bakery has been in my family since 1945,” said Claxton. “My grandfather began working as a child at the bakery and bought the business in 1945. I have memories of coming to the bakery as a child and seeing the baking process.”
With the bakery being present in Georgia for over a century, it’s been able to create a reputation that people don’t ignore. Dwight Smith, a South Georgia native, has been loving and eating fruitcake from the Claxton Bakery for as long as he can remember.
“My momma used to buy fruitcake when my brother and I were overseas in the fifties and she would save it for us when we got home,” Smith said.
The sweet treat even brings in fruitcake lovers from all over the country. Claire Roeker, a sophomore at Georgia Southern University who is originally from Antioch, Illinois, tried the famous fruitcake for the first time in April and was immediately hooked.
“A lot of people don’t like fruitcake, which I think is weird,” Roeker said. “But this fruitcake is hands down some amazing fruitcake.”
Whether you’re a local fruitcake aficionado or you come from far across the seas, the world-famous Claxton fruitcake is waiting for you.
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