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A Little History
The Orange Blossom Bakery & Café® is truly an institution on Hatteras Island.  Originally built by Walter Barnett as the Orange Blossom Motel in the 1950s, the name comes from orange trees that were located on the property.  The Barnetts owned and operated the motel at that time, and as we told one of their granddaughters who paid us a visit in 2006, Mr. Barnett still keeps an eye on the place – we have had several “encounters” with things moving around!
Barnettes
Members of the Barnett family, in the orange grove, circa 1950.
Oakham'
Doris and Allan Oakham and Lillian Hundley,
circa 1985.
 After Mr. Barnett passed away, the motel was converted to a bakery by Doris and Allan Oakham and Lillian Hundley.  Doris loved serving all sorts of different cakes and pies and their love for the Orange Blossom still flourishes, as they make trips to the bakery to keep an eye on us!
The same is true for Henry Schliff, who bought the bakery in 1991 with his wife Michal.  Henry and Michal made some major conversions, and added the café to the bakery, hence our name of the Orange Blossom Bakery & Café®!  Fifteen years later, the Stacks bought the bakery from Henry and made additional improvements.
StacksSchliff
Stacy Stacks, Henry Schliff and Tab Stacks, 2006.



Charley
In 2007, Lisa and Charley Pereira bought the bakery and have endeavored to keep all of the wonderful things about the Orange Blossom just the same while adding a few menu items like the Myers Rum Raisin Cinnamon Roll and air condition for the kitchen!  In 2009 Savannah Caroline Pereira was born and joined the Orange Blossom family.  Each owner has passed along love and wisdom to the next one, and so have many of the lifelong customers and their children and grandchildren, who often reminisce about their youthful days spent fishing and swimming and eating loads of Apple Uglies™!
         

Lisa and Savannah		Sophia
Charley and Sophia Kaitlynn
Born Nov. 21, 2012		Saylor Cay
Charley and Saylor Cay
Born Dec. 12, 2015

Those famous Apple Uglies™!
Even when we close in the winter, the fragrance of those Apple Uglies™ stays around until we re-open!  This is definitely the Orange Blossom’s signature item – and everyone who works there knows when someone is searching for the word.  Folks have been told about the Uglies™ and then come down to Buxton to the bakery and ask for “those things that you make that our Aunt Helen said we had to have” or “My father used to come here and said I had to get him some Uglies™ – but that can’t be right”.  The history of the Apple Ugly™ is a wonderful accident – a visiting baker showed the Oakhams how to take the leftover donut dough and mix in some apples and create a fritter.  But the name Ugly™ has many different people who claim it as there own – and it’s a natural.  When you see one in person, you’ll agree that they really are the most ugly baked good you’ve ever seen – and probably the best tasting one as well! 

With an increased nod to better diets, we also serve a baked Apple Ugly™ (meaning that it isn’t fried), and many who have tried that insist it’s better than the fried versions, but we can tell you that the lines out the door in the summer are for people clamoring for a bag of the good ol’ fried ones.  We joked for months about putting chocolate on an Ugly™ – because no one could imagine any more calories on it, and one day we did.  That gave birth to the Chocolate Ugly™ – or as we call them “Krupas”.  Those turned out to be very popular as well, so now they are a part of the Ugly™ Family!  The name comes from the Polish word for “turd” (kupa) – which is really what these look like – and where can you go, order an Ugly™ and a Turd, and absolutely be in heaven?