'You've come a long way baby,' Peters shouted to a bidder who had just upped his early bid by several thousand dollars for one of the shining floor mixers in the Braddock bakery - a bakery founded in 1895 that's churned out generations of birthday cakes and other treats for residents of the Mon Valley.
Richard Farrell watched equipment owned by his family since 1945 being sold to strangers, sometimes at rock-bottom prices, but he watched the sale with a dry eye.
Farrell said he wasn't sad that the family business was being sold, but some of his former employees were.
'There's a lot of mixed emotions here today,' Farrell said.
'It's sad; there's a lot of tradition here,' said Lori Doherty, a former employee who had started working at the bakery in her high school days.
'I raised her,' Farrell said.
'He did raise me,' said Doherty.
Farrell said he had wanted to hold onto the bakery, which had been in his family for two generations, but none of his three grown daughters were interested in taking on the burden.
He said the next best thing was selling it to Bernie Baker, the owner of Jenny Lee Bakery and a friend of his for over 30 years.
'I wish Dick all the best,' said Baker, who was on hand to test his pocketbook against the dozens of people who filtered in for the auction of Farrell's equipment Tuesday.
'You never want to see a family-owned business go out of business; there's not too many of us left,' Baker said.
Baker said Mon Valley residents who had piled into Guentert's in September to buy their favorite treats after the news of the sale did not need to worry.
'We're going to carry on the tradition of a family-owned bakery here in Braddock,' Baker said.
Farrell said Baker is taking over the operation of all four of the former Guentert's bakeries. In addition to the store on Braddock Avenue, Farrell owned stores in Lawrenceville, Swissvale and the North Side.
He said all of his employees had the opportunity to stay on with Baker, but because of the good job market for experienced bakers, not all of them did.
Bootsy Ambroffi, a lifelong Braddock resident, has worked at Guentert's for seven years and has found a new home in Baker's company.
'I'm happy, very happy,' Ambroffi said.
Ambroffi said every birthday cake that was ever bought for her as a child came from Guentert's, but she wasn't sad watching Farrell's equipment on the auction block.
'I'm just glad it's going to be used,' she said. 'This is the beginning of a new era.'
Daniel Reynolds can be reached at dreynolds@tribweb.com or (412) 380-8533.
