Bonatt's Bakery Will Not Melt-Away

 HARWICH – Bonatt’s Bakery was a mainstay in Harwich Port for more than a half century. For more than 40 years it was located at the corner of Bank Street and Route 28, a spot that brings back a lot of memories for longtime residents, especially due to the taste of the melt-away.

 The melt-away had a national and international reputation as one of the best breakfast confections ever created. It was sifted and shaped in a Greek Revival structure that once stood at 585 Route 28 (often referred to as Main Street). After a recent upgrade, the building was dedicated in honor of the Bonatts last week.

The pastry was the creation of A.J. Bonatt, who opened a bakery and restaurant on a seasonal basis in the building in 1940. A.J. and Rose Bonatt ran the bakery on the east side of the building and a restaurant on the west side. It quickly became the place to go, especially after A.J. mastered the melt-away, a brown sugar, butter and blueberry confection. 

Select board member Jeffrey Handler, speaking at the building dedication on Thursday, said when his work took him around the country, people would ask him where he was from. Handler would say the little town of Harwich on Cape Cod.

“I know that place,” he said people often responded, “the home of the melt-away.” 

Handler’s in-laws, Sandy Wycoff and Jeff Lang, recently purchased the building that previously held the bakery — the former Heather’s Hair Port location — upgraded the structure, and opened Bank and Main, a new clothing store. Thursday’s dedication included a ribbon-cutting for the new business in the village.

“Life is about opportunity, and this is an opportunity to recognize a family who has given so much to Harwich, the Bonatts,” Handler said. “It’s not just about the melt-away, it’s about a family which has given so much to Harwich.”  

 The Bonatts have been a fixture in Harwich for decades. A.J. and Rose previously had bakeries in Florida, Fall River, Newport and Onset before coming to Harwich, said Alice Bonatt. They were quickly embraced by the town. A.J. passed away in 1952 and Rose continued to run the operation, eventually giving up the restaurant side. Her son Jimmy returned from Florida to help his mother out, and eventually took over the business. 

 Jimmy’s wife passed away in 1975, and with their six kids, he continued to run the business with the kids lending a helping hand. Debbie Bonatt, one of Jimmy’s children, said on Thursday that she started working at the bakery when she was 6 years old.

 “I remember when I was little going to Bonatt’s at the corner of Bank and 28 with my dad,” said Debe Schiavi in a recent social media post. “He and Jimmy were friends and we would go in the back screen door and Jimmy would give me a fresh hermit. I still remember the smell and the taste…”

 “Growing up, it was Sunday morning tradition going before the 11 o’clock Mass to pick up melt-aways, rolls etc.,” Elizabeth-Ann Curran wrote on a social media post.

 Jimmy met Alice and they were married in 1977. Alice also had six kids. Jimmy Bonatt died in 1978 and Alice took over the business and ran it for three years, but she was also rearing 11 of the children and it became too much for her. She sold the business in 1981 to Bill Sifflard. Sifflard eventually relocated the bakery to the Port Cinema Center in the heart of the village. The melt-away remained a big draw.

 Alice Bonatt went to work at the Harwich Fire Department as a dispatcher, and when she retired in 2012 she purchased the bakery again and ran it for several years. 

Bonatt’s no longer graces Harwich Port. But the Bonatt commitment to community and the creation of the culinary treat known as the melt-away now has continued recognition on the front wall of the Bank and Main building in the village.