After 29 years in business, the Desert Flour Bakery in the Village of Oak Creek was closed down by the Yavapai County Environmental Health Unit on Wednesday, Nov. 30, for violations of the county health code.

“We had all these issues during COVID … and couldn’t keep it up to what they wanted,” owner Gary Wald said. “Just a victim of circumstance.”

“I offered them all kinds of solutions but they weren’t willing to work with me,” Wald continued. “They were bound and determined to do this … There was a lot of issues, but we did our best to take care of them.”

Wald pointed out that it has been almost impossible for him to find employees “up to any standards.” For the last two months, he has only had one employee other than himself. He was coming in at 3 a.m. every morning to do all the baking and prep work himself, as well as handling cooking and dishwashing.

In an attempt to resolve the issues raised by the county, he hired a cleaning company, a refrigeration company and an exterminator, but it “didn’t matter what I did,” Wald said. “They’re justified, I guess, but not willing to work with me.”

“They had numerous violations over the last 18 months,” stated Cecil Newell, environmental health unit manager for Yavapai County. According to Newell, a health inspection of Desert Flour on Aug. 4, 2021, revealed seven violations, including hand-washing, cold-holding violations and improper separation of chemical storage. At a subsequent inspection on May 13, 2022, county staff also identified seven violations.

By press time, the only inspection report for Desert Flour publicly available on Yavapai County’s website was dated Sept. 27, 2022, which Newell confirmed had been the bakery’s last routine inspection.

The Sept. 27 report identified 14 violations, beginning with the assertion that the person in charge was “not providing proper oversight” of cleaning, temperatures and sanitation. Other violations included refrigerated foods being stored at temperatures higher than the county requirement for refrigeration; the absence of discard dates on ready-to-eat refrigerated foods; improper handling of wiping cloths; food coming into contact with unclean surfaces; and several violations relating to the cleanliness of machines and surfaces.

The inspector also found that having an open front door to provide air circulation for customers was a violation of the health code, as it permitted flies to enter the dining area.

“Cecil put us out of business,” Wald said, referring to Newell as “the one that pushed everything.”

Wald also attributed the bakery’s closure to personnel changes at the county.

“The old inspectors would work with you,” Wald said. “This is a new gal in town, and she spent four hours there writing everything up.”

He added that the former inspectors had always been willing to work with him to resolve potential violations, typically giving him seven days’ notice to make corrections before doing a final inspection.

“There is a new inspector, but she’s more than willing to help,” Newell said. “She was not the first. She was just unfortunately the last. They have been in violation a number of previous years.”

Wald said there was a hearing on Desert Flour’s license on Tuesday, Nov. 22, which did not go well for him.

“In 30 years, no one’s ever gotten sick,” Wald told the hearing officer.

According to his account of the hearing, Newell replied by saying that the county doesn’t always know when customers get sick. Wald countered that his customers would have let him know if that had happened.

Newell declined to disclose the name of the hearing officer or details regarding the hearing without a formal records request.

“I don’t know whether [the officer] would want to give that out without a request,” he said.

Wald also stressed that his establishment features an open kitchen, allowing customers to see for themselves what goes on behind the scenes and whether conditions are unsanitary.

Public response to the closure has been strongly in favor of Desert Flour. Wald said that he has received about 150 letters in support of his case, and roughly another 300 people signed a petition to keep the bakery open.

“You’d be amazed how many people came and said, ‘What can I do?’ ‘How can I help?’” Wald recalled.

The online version of the petition, set up by Robin Kelley, referred to Desert Flour as “one of VOC’s treasured establishments” and described the county’s issues with the bakery as “minor.”

“I have some interested people who want to take it over,” Wald said of Desert Flour’s future. He mentioned that he also knows a couple of people potentially interested in partnering to revive the bakery.

Wald expressed his thankfulness toward the community for their continued patronage over the last three decades.

“I survived 9/11 and COVID, and then [the county] still put me out of business,” he reflected.