Heights Bakery Inc.

Heights Bakery Inc. Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Heights Bakery Inc., Bakery, 4925 Central Avenue NE, Columbia Heights, MN.
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60 years strong, 4 generations of family have shaped Heights Bakery into what it is today: An unpretentious storefront with some of the best donuts, rolls and bread around.

08/01/2025

For now, there are no additional words besides thank you and goodbye.

08/01/2025

Friday morning, a line with dozens of hungry customers stretched out to the intersection. The Heights Bakery has been serving sweets to the Columbia Heights community for 72 years.

What an honor from the city of Columbia Heights!
08/01/2025

What an honor from the city of Columbia Heights!

07/31/2025

Two more days. After a lifetime, it comes down to two more days.

We know what our owners do next. After fixing their sleep schedules there are fish to be caught and books to be read. Grandkids to rock and hockey games to watch. Vacations to be taken, and a haircut on a day other than Monday? Crazy talk.

But what do you do next? Where does your next donut come from? Where do you get dinner rolls for your Thanksgiving table?

You say we're your favorite, but we're not the only donut shop in town. And honestly, it's never been a competition. Business doesn't have to be cutthroat. Small businesses can co-exist and be successful, because at the end of the day, we all serve our corners of our community with the parts we do well.

For a long stretch of time small, family owned bakery owners were a community amongst themselves. Not in a checking you out, steal your recipes kind of way, but in an "I know what it's like" kind of way. Camaraderie, shared struggles, and support.

We've all texted a neighbor to borrow an egg, or a cup of sugar, right? I still remember my father-in-law Jerry, generation 2 owner telling stories of middle of the night issues. You can't just run to the grocery store at 2 am and buy hundreds of pounds of flour, 5 pound bags at a time. You could however call a bakery further down Central, where they were also baking at 2 am, make a run for 2 of their 50 # bags, promising to replace them 14 hours later when your next shipment comes in. A handshake. Trust. Shared success.

It doesn't hurt our feelings to know that you've enjoyed someone else's donuts, or toasted someone else's bread. After all, you've kept us in business for 72 years, and other bakeries deserve the same.

So for those of you who have divided loyalties, or a second favorite donut shop, not so much for us, but for those fans who aren't sure where their next donut is going to come from, shout out those bakeries in the comments. Maybe you'll discover someplace new, someone to give a try. And when you make your first visit after we close on Friday, tell them Heights Bakery sent you.

07/29/2025

Tuesday update. 4 days to go.

Donuts and sweet rolls are gone. The first in line was 3:30 am. 😳

Buns are being packed up now, breads will follow, cookies will be out in a couple of hours!

07/25/2025

Dedicated, adjective: (of a person) devoted to a task or purpose. See also, Heights Bakery customers.

The lines for our opening have started earlier and earlier every day this week. Today, Friday, the line began forming before 4 a.m., which is remarkable, and truthfully, kind of mind boggling. I mean, we knew you loved us, but this is next level. We are so grateful for everyone who has waited in line for our donuts and your chance to say goodbye.

We're doing our best, but the wait time can be lengthy, so some suggestions for fun while you're out there:

1) Pretend it's the Metrodome circa 1987 and see if you can get the entire line to do the wave.

2) Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament.

3) Offer a high-five to anyone who has to walk past you to get to the end of the line.

4) Start a game of telephone and see if "my favorite breakfast is a raised glazed donut and an ice cold Mountain Dew" is still "my favorite breakfast is a raised glazed donut and an ice cold Mountain Dew" by the end of the line.

We've heard you say it, the treats are worth the wait and you're happy to do so, but in all seriousness, we're so grateful for all of the support in these final 2 weeks.

Seeing everyone lined up for donuts has me reminiscing. Kids these days only know the kind of virtual queue you wait in online. "You are 3,276th in line. Good luck scoring Taylor Swift tickets." But back in the good old days, we camped out for concert tickets, Black Friday sales, and I once stood in a line waiting for the doors of a school office to open to ensure I got my kid into the preschool date/time slot I needed. It was cutthroat.

Besides donuts this week, what's something cool you've stood in a line to wait for?

Imagine this. It’s the summer of 1999. I’m 17 years old, newly graduated from high school. I’m still years away from mee...
07/24/2025

Imagine this. It’s the summer of 1999. I’m 17 years old, newly graduated from high school. I’m still years away from meeting my husband and adopting a new catchphrase…”marrying into a family that owns a bakery is the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

I digress. Anyway, it’s grad party day. My mom is flitting around the kitchen, annoyed that the dinner rolls she ordered from a local warehouse store didn’t meet her standards. “They’re day old and crusty!” she exclaims to anyone who will listen.

My dad disappears, and no one really notices, until he quietly walks back into the house a while later with bag after bag after bag of Dollar Buns. Ever the hero, he snuck south on Highway 65 and into Heights Bakery, where he bought them out of their remaining bun inventory that afternoon. The grad party guests were saved from their day old bun fate!

Donuts and rolls may be sweet, but Heights Bakery bread and buns can’t be beat. From my teenagers finishing a loaf of Finger Bread in one sitting, to Swedish Rye toasted with butter, or the baskets of dinner rolls at all of our family holidays, our love of the ye**ty goodness runs deep.

What is your favorite loaf?

07/23/2025

WEDNESDAY, July 23

Well, we made it 45 minutes longer than yesterday. Sold out of donuts and sweet rolls, but bread, buns and cookies are available!

Between post comments, Facebook Messenger messages, and even a text message or two, more than a few bakery fans have ask...
07/22/2025

Between post comments, Facebook Messenger messages, and even a text message or two, more than a few bakery fans have asked about the possibility of us sharing the recipes for their favorite baked goods.

While recipes created and perfected over decades feel like they may be closely guarded secrets, there are more reasons than secrecy that make sharing difficult.

Did you know the bakery oven has 5 rotating racks? Those 5 racks each hold 5 full size sheet pans, and each sheet pan can hold 2 dozen cookies.

5 racks X 5 pans X 2 dozen X 12 cookies per dozen = 600 cookies can be baked off at once.

Bakeries work at a scale not achievable by a standard home baker. This obviously well worn Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe card uses a delightful 5 pounds of chocolate chips and totals out to almost 25 pounds of ingredients for a batch of cookies. The cookie dough is mixed in a Hobart mixer with a 60 quart capacity.

Baking is art. And math. And science. Unfortunately, as much as the math should work, say taking a 25 # recipe and dividing it by 25 to get a 1 # recipe, the chemistry of baking sneaks in. The ratios in a small batch don’t necessarily hold when you scale up to a production quantity. This also works in reverse, simply dividing down production quantity recipes would give you a slightly different finished product.

We hope you understand why there won’t be a cookbook, it would be quite the undertaking to scale these recipes down after all of these years. And maybe, some of the secrets are still just that. While I, (the sister-in-law author of this post) was pretty excited to be given access to this battered recipe card, it calls for vanilla, but it doesn’t say how much. Oh, and there are no directions either, just quantities and the knowledge that the holder of the card knows what they’re doing.

Tuesday Update. Well. When we said we weren’t certain what to expect, it was true, and none of us quite anticipated how ...
07/22/2025

Tuesday Update.

Well. When we said we weren’t certain what to expect, it was true, and none of us quite anticipated how quickly we’d sell out of donuts and sweet rolls this morning. Yes, they’re gone, for today.

Buns and breads are being packed and are available, and cookies will hit the case later today.

Thank you for your support!

Heights Bakery's extended July 4th break is almost over! The cases will be full again tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22nd. If y...
07/21/2025

Heights Bakery's extended July 4th break is almost over! The cases will be full again tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22nd.

If you were the first customer in the store in the morning with the wide open selection in front of you...what's your order?

(Heights Bakery is still on July 4th break, reopening July 22nd. The bakery's final day in business is Friday, August 1st.)

Back in 2016, Yelp compiled a list of the top bakery in each state, naming Heights Bakery the top bakery in Minnesota. T...
07/19/2025

Back in 2016, Yelp compiled a list of the top bakery in each state, naming Heights Bakery the top bakery in Minnesota. Things went a little crazy in the days and weeks following, and this throwback photo is the very full storefront immediately following the publication of that list and the traction it quickly gained online.

While we don't quite know what to expect when we re-open on the 22nd, based on the comments on our posts, it could look a little like this. So, in anticipation, a few housekeeping notes...

1) We won't be taking pre-orders over the phone, Facebook Messenger, or in person. We understand that means you're taking your chances when you choose to come in. So...

2) We'll make as much product as we can in a given day. We're sorry if we run out or don't have your favorite when you get here. We understand that means you may come earlier than normal, and you may be waiting in a line. So...

3) We appreciate your patience and your kindness with our staff. They will be doing their best to serve everyone quickly, efficiently and fairly. So...

4) Speaking of kindness, and fairness, we appreciate your kindness towards your fellow customers as well. While you may see lots of product, think of the folks in line behind you as you make your purchases. Sharing is caring and your freezer doesn't fit 20 dozen donuts anyway.

Tuesday will be here before you know it. See you soon!

(Heights Bakery is still on July 4th break, reopening July 22nd. The bakery's final day in business is Friday, August 1st.)

Address

4925 Central Avenue NE
Columbia Heights, MN
55421

Opening Hours

Tuesday 5am - 6pm
Wednesday 5am - 6pm
Thursday 5am - 6pm
Friday 5am - 6pm
Saturday 6am - 3pm

Telephone

+17635720624

Website

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