Dainty Maid: the bakery of 1928, closed and twice revived

1928 — present, in its successions · 231 South Michigan Street

The house: The Dainty Maid Bake Shop opened in 1928 at 231 South Michigan Street and baked there for eighty-eight years, a downtown institution of the kind the directories count without comment — its windows were worth photographing: the University of Notre Dame Archives holds Ron Parent's c.‑1970s photographs of them. The bakery's modern course ends in a single documented season: owner David Hab died on February 5, 2016, and the bakery closed with him.

The revivals: In late August 2016, Cops & Doughnuts of Clare, Michigan, bought the Dainty Maid and revived some of the same recipes under a joined name — "Cops and Doughnuts: The Dainty Maid Precinct" — as Michiana Life recorded in April 2017. The address then traded as the Dainty Maid Co. food hall: the City of South Bend's Board of Public Works approved sidewalk-café agreements for it through the spring of 2021, and its counters included A Roaster Called Revenant, the coffee roaster of the coffee entry below. In August 2026 the house announced the food hall would be folded into one integrated restaurant; the announcement is printed as an announcement, dated, and the end state belongs to a later update pass. What the record holds whole is the arc: a 1928 bake shop, an owner's death that closed it, a Michigan buyer who kept its recipes and its name, and a food hall that kept the name again.

Sources:

1. Michiana Life (April 2017) — the 1928 opening at 231 South Michigan Street; David Hab's death on 5 February 2016 and the closing; the Cops & Doughnuts purchase of late August 2016 and the revived recipes.
2. University of Notre Dame Archives — Ron Parent's c.‑1970s photographs of the bakery's windows.
3. City of South Bend, Board of Public Works (March–April 2021) — sidewalk-café agreements for the Dainty Maid Co. food hall; A Roaster Called Revenant among its vendors.
4. Dainty Maid house announcement (August 2026) — the food hall's folding into one integrated restaurant, as announced.