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For 154 years, this family-owned business has been part of the fabric of Port Adelaide.

Photo :: Jon Wah

In 1870, the soon-to-be-elected Mayor, David Bower, built what’s known as the “Bower Buildings.” And smack-bang in the middle of all the shopfronts on Saint Vincent Street lies Mayfair Bakery and Patisserie, which has grown to become SA’s longest-running bakery and continues to run as a family-owned business success story today.

The previous owner ran it for 57 years, until he retired well into his 80s and sold it to the Donnelly family. And for those 57 years, he got his hands in the flour, baking every day as his father did before him… and the way Phil Donnelly does today.

Photo :: Jon Wah

But running a bakery isn’t a piece of cake — it’s early starts and long days. To own a bit of the Port at the ripe old age of 21 was a dream for Phil and he never took that for granted. He certainly wasn’t going to sit and watch the flour grow! “I was down here all day and all night; I became part of the local community.”

Phil’s business thrives in the Port Adelaide community, but it also thrives because of the Port Adelaide community, too. “

We’re far more engaged with the local community than a lot of other bakeries. We also get international visitors who have heard about our gluten-free cheesecakes overseas. When they step off the cruise ships, the first place they visit is Mayfair.”

But Phil had no idea how big his bakery could go! From the original owners baking Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday cake in 1974, to Phil being asked to cater for US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and at the time, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Mayfair has always remained humble and true to his vision.

And their roaring success in wholesale food service means Mayfair products are now all over South Australia — the Barossa, Hawker, Wallaroo, Middleton, Broken Hill; in bakeries, IGA supermarkets and general stores, and even in the Adelaide Art Gallery. “We’re not just a small shop in Port Adelaide that’s been here for over 150 years, we’re everywhere!” And in one iconic coastal location, “You can get a kransky, a surfboard and a wetsuit all in the same store!”

Photos :: Jon Wah

After 12 years building up the wholesale side of his business, Phil decided it was time to introduce this local favourite to the rest of the state… and Australia. “We sat down with CSIRO and Food SA and asked them if what we were selling wholesale — 28 tonnes of cream cheese, which made up 450,000 cheesecakes a year — was a lot. The overwhelming feedback was that it was indeed a LOT and we should have our Mayfair Bakery products in supermarkets!”

Today, in addition to their original historic site at the Port, Mayfair has a designated gluten-free production facility to ensure their most loved product, the gluten-free baked cheesecake, is readily available in family-sized and individual packs at Tony & Mark’s, Foodland SA and other independent retailers right around South Australia.

Phil is amazed by how many people come to the original Mayfair site at the Port and they recognise the products they’ve enjoyed in other South Australian businesses. “We don’t need our name on it for people to know our products. Our products are unique — so evidently Mayfair!”

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