"Trying to find people to cook is like looking in a black hole." That's how the owner of goodbeet, Ashley, quoted a restaurant friend when she told Patch in late September that the vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free spot at 29 Haddon Ave. would close its storefront after 11 years. A few doors away, a rebuilt bakery had opened about a month earlier with 30 employees and refurbished ovens that had been baking on that block for most of a century.

Both stories point the same way. On this stretch of Haddon Avenue in Westmont, food businesses this fall are organizing around the oven and the counter. Even the business pulling back is keeping its counter open.

The ovens at 15 Haddon Ave.

McMillan's Bakery opened in 1939, ran as a fourth-generation family business founded by George and Evelyn McMillan, and closed after May 18, 2025, following 86 years. It was best known for cream doughnuts and holiday cakes. Its fruitcake tradition called for fruit soaked a week in Grand Marnier.

The building is now Del Buono's Pastry Shop. Tom Whitman, who owns the 100-year-old Del Buono's Bakery in Haddon Heights and all three Carmen's Deli locations in South Jersey, bought the shop for $500,000 and took it down to the studs. Before the August opening he told the Inquirer the total ticket was over $2 million. The new shop covers 2,000 square feet, more than double the size of McMillan's.

Here's what carried over and what didn't:

• The ovens. Whitman had the original McMillan's ovens refurbished and kept them.
• Some of the people. Doug Biemiller, a grandson of George and Evelyn McMillan, is back working there, along with other longtime McMillan's employees.
• Not the name or the recipes. 42Freeway reported that the McMillan family chose not to sell its recipes or other bakery assets, out of respect for the founding family's wishes. Instead, Biemiller, Al DiBartolo and other bakers put together 400 of their own recipes to open the shop.

So the cream doughnuts in the case are described as reminiscent of the ones McMillan's sold. They aren't McMillan's recipe. The menu also includes pizzelles, biscotti and specialty coffee, and the bread and rolls come from Del Buono's Bakery in Haddon Heights. According to 42Freeway, the shop is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Half the space goes to DiBartolo's Kakery. That's DiBartolo's custom and ready-made cake counter, set up in what used to be the McMillan's storage closet. DiBartolo won Food Network's Halloween Wars and competed on TLC's Next Great Baker. He told the Inquirer he plans to run monthly themed cake decorating classes in the shop. "You're really getting authentic, old-school baking in here," he said. "But with a modern twist."

Why a festival Saturday made sense for the launch

Del Buono's grand opening landed on one of the avenue's busiest days. The public celebration ran 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29, the same day as the township's music festival on Haddon Avenue. The plan was to hand out 1,000 free cream doughnuts and raffle off a DiBartolo cake. That August event was the Summer of Love festival, with a lineup of Invasion 65, Dancin Machine, Priceless, Boy Band Project and B Street Band. Township officials held a ribbon-cutting the day before.

A counter business fits that kind of day. A box of doughnuts or a cannoli is easy to carry down a closed street on festival afternoon, and it doesn't depend on table turnover. That matters because October brings more of the same crowds back to the same blocks.

goodbeet keeps its counter

goodbeet's news is about the kitchen more than the business. The last full-kitchen day at 29 Haddon Ave. is Oct. 9. Grab-and-go counter orders, full wholesale service and meal prep continue through Oct. 31. After that, ownership plans pop-up appearances, wholesale accounts and branded products.

The part goodbeet is giving up is the cooked-to-order line. That's the part that needs a cook on every shift, and its owner named staffing as the hard part. The prepared food, the wholesale accounts and the brand all continue. For regulars, the practical dates are simple. A hot meal from the kitchen means going by Oct. 9. Counter items and meal prep run through Halloween.

A home bakery moves to Hopkins Road

The third story is coming in from outside town. A Labor of Loaf Bread Company is setting up its first storefront at 811 Hopkins Road. Owner Aimee Speas built the business as a home bakery in Audubon, selling through weekly bread drops, pop-ups, local markets and retail partnerships. The lineup includes sourdough loaves, English muffins, baguettes, sandwich loaves and Asiago bread.

In early August the opening was described only as "this fall." As of this weekend, the bakery's own site says it is moving into a physical location and its menu is coming soon, with no posted opening date or hours. Until the doors actually open, the bakery's own announcements are the best place to check.

Speas got here through bread drops and market stalls, then moved into a storefront. goodbeet is moving the other way, from a full kitchen to wholesale and pop-ups. The two businesses meet in the same place: baked and prepared goods sold over a counter.

Where the October crowds will be

The rest of the month brings steady foot traffic to the avenue and to Haddon Square. These dates come from the township's events page and Shop Haddon's listing.

Two things to know about Oct. 17. The township page's description says Oct. 11, but its own heading and Shop Haddon's listing both say Oct. 17. And Shop Haddon's header gives a noon start while its description says 1 p.m. The festival has two stages, food trucks, local artisans, beer gardens, a kid zone and a 70-foot Ferris wheel. It's free and about four blocks from the Westmont PATCO Speedline. The township hasn't published the October lineup yet.

Oct. 24 stacks two events. The Haunted Haddon Market's Saturday night lines up with the Crawl-O-Ween. The crawl's participating spots are PJ Whelihan's Pub, Brewer's Towne Tavern, The Taproom and Grill, Treno Pizza Bar, The Pour House, Duo Restaurant & Bar, Central Taco & Tequila, Reunion Hall and Tom Fischer's Tavern. The jitney is free and stops at every participating venue plus the Westmont PATCO station. There's no cover and no ticket.

Weekday trips near Cuthbert

Weekday errands at the Collingswood end of the avenue take some planning this month. On Sept. 21, Camden County started the first phase of its $3.5 million Haddon Avenue Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project at Haddon Avenue and Cuthbert Boulevard. Crews are working between Strawbridge and Bryant avenues, with lane closures Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. for about six to eight weeks. Some turns may be restricted or detoured. Counting from the Sept. 21 start, that window ends somewhere between early and mid-November.

The schedule keeps the work off Saturdays, so festival weekends shouldn't be affected. Thursday markets start at 4 p.m., right when the daily closures end. A county spokesperson told the Inquirer this phase repairs worn pavement at Cuthbert. Signal work at Collings, Cuthbert, Crystal Lake and Maple avenues starts next spring, once the equipment arrives, and is expected to take two to three months.

If a bakery box ends up on the way to somewhere quieter, Newton Lake Park has seven new ADA-compliant concrete fishing piers and repaired accessible paths. Camden County announced the opening on Sept. 30.

At The Colleen Hadden Group, we start our Westmont town tours on Haddon Avenue for a reason. Small businesses opening, closing and changing is what daily life here runs on. If you'd like to walk the avenue with us, schedule a guided town tour and we'll plan it around one of the October Saturdays above.