MeMa’s bakery expanding in Power & Light District

Five years after opening a shop in the Power & Light District, MeMa’s Old-Fashioned Bakery + Kitchen is relocating and expanding.

It plans to take the former Yummo Yogurt + Smoothies spot at 1360 Walnut St. for a scheduled early November opening. It would close at its current location, 1211 Main St., just a few days before the new store opens.

MeMa’s bakes everything from scratch -- cakes, cookies, cinnamon rolls, apple and cherry strudel, povitica and fudge brownies. Its lunch menu includes panini, croissant sandwiches, Italian meatball subs, soup, and salads.

It also has daily specials, including Monday’s meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and roll for $6, and Tuesday’s 75 cent beef tacos and $1 chicken tacos.

The business began in the early 1990s as a way for founder Loraine Waldeck to help pay for her children’s private-school tuition. At first she concentrated on selling strudel and cinnamon rolls to wholesale accounts, working out of the basement of her Kansas City, Kan., home, and naming the business after her children’s nickname for her mother -- Mema. She brought on Mema -- also known as Marion Hoffman -- to help out.

The goods were so popular that Waldeck moved to a commercial space in 1995. Then customers started knocking on her door, so the bakery was turned into a retail outlet.

In 2006, Waldeck moved the whole operation to the Legends Outlets Kansas City in Kansas City, Kan. But she recently relocated that operation to Wyandotte Plaza, a longtime Kansas City, Kan., shopping center that is being redeveloped.

The move in the Power & Light District will give her more seating.

“We just needed more space and it is more centrally located in the district and closer to the Sprint Center,” said Waldeck, who now owns the bakery with her daughter Cassidy Waldeck.

This story was originally published August 21, 2014 at 3:34 PM with the headline "MeMa’s bakery expanding in Power & Light District."