Avalon International Breads closing Detroit New Center location for good

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Avalon International Breads announced it's closing up shop in Detroit's New Center district. Downtown is seeing a lot less foot traffic with people working from home during the pandemic, and it's unlikely that will change anytime soon. 

Avalon Bakery opened their Avalon Cafe and Biscuit Bar on W. Grand Boulevard three years ago but the owners decided to close it permanently this week. 

"People are working from home so there's not that much traffic. It's very easy to park there right now," Bekah Galang said, making light of the situation. 

So the company is focusing on other locations right now. Those are in Ann Arbor, downtown Detroit and the original location on West Willis which has been a fixture in that community for 20 years.

"It's at a really good feeling in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways it feels like 1997 again when we opened because there's not that much going on like in '97 and the community's just really happy we're here," said CEO Jackie Victor. 

She's overwhelmed by the love and support.

"The feeling of people of people being so isolated in their homes and the coming out for the first time and how happy they were, it just didn't occur to me there'd be that kind of warmth and enthusiasm," she said. 

Back in the New Center area, Beyond Juice does say their business has picked up.

"Business has picked up a lot. We're doing 3,000 or over a day so that's pretty good," said Taylor Jones. But employees know the summertime weather is helping drive sales.

Myron Wahls works in the New Center Area and he told FOX 2 the decrease in customers they've seen is tremendous.

Meanwhile, Myron Wahls, another worker in Detroit's New Center area, is remaining optimistic about the future. 

"They were just starting to build a lot of a new business, new structures, new businesses everywhere," he said. "Hopefully it'll come back."