Zadies Bakeshop, located in Fair Lawn, is known for its delectable kosher baked goods and has been a cherished bakery since 2005. Its high-quality recipes, dating back four generations, contain an old-fashioned charm. It was a blow to the community, then, when the beloved Zadies recently suffered cosmetic damages after a car plowed into the storefront.

The car’s driver, a 79-year-old woman, claimed her brakes were not working, but it was alleged she mistakenly used the gas pedal rather than the brakes. The woman, a regular customer of the store, was in the vehicle with her husband; they were both unhurt.

Yellow cement columns were already in place to protect the shop from this scenario, which has happened before, but the car drove right over the columns and through the store’s plate-glass window, crashing into the showcase closest to the front of the store.

Adam Steinberg, one of the bakery owners, was standing by the register talking to someone to his left, and didn’t see the car pull into the store until it hit the showcase head-on. While he got some of the brunt of the force, he was fortunately unharmed. Aside from Steinberg, there was only one customer in the store and two other employees behind the counter. The customer in the shop was treated and released by paramedics at the scene for minor injuries from glass shards, and the two employees were unharmed. “This whole thing obviously could have gone way, way, way worse…thank God everybody’s okay,” said Steinberg.

Although retail operations are suspended, Zadies is still taking birthday cake and cupcake orders, and wholesale operations are fully up and running. They are still supplying to all the usual stores and markets. Steinberg said, if anything, more products are being sold to account for the lack of retail. The entire store needs to be renovated due to the damage, but Zadies is looking to re-open right before the Jewish holidays.

Steinberg chooses to have an optimistic outlook on the incident. “In situations like this you really have to take the positive out of the negative and Hashem will take care of the rest,” he said. Zadies is thankful for the outpouring of support from the community and can’t wait to get back to fully serving the Fair Lawn community and the rest of the Zadies family.

Visit www.zadiesbakeshop.com/where-to-buy/ for the list of vendors that carry Zadies products.