For the last month or so, North Bend has been different, missing something, but that changes this week. George’s Bakery, closed Jan. 5 for renovations, re-opened on Wednesday, all new, but almost all the same.

The pastry destination and lunch stop on North Bend Way has been part of the city’s downtown for almost 90 years, and it really didn’t need changing, said new owner Steve Teodosiadis. He should know, too; he’s been shopping at George’s since 1983.

“I know George’s Bakery from when George was here!” he says.

George Macris, the namesake of George’s Buttercrust Bakery, started running the bakery in 1964, and operated it for several decades. A lot of people remembered George, and those people are the reason Teodosiadis wants to keep the bakery going, just as it was.

“The staff is going to stay, the products are all going to be the same,” said Teodosiadis. “We’re not changing the recipes.”

Joe McKeown, the baker and former owner is also staying, but his wife and bakery co-owner, Kathy Stokesberry, has officially retired.

People will notice a few changes, but little that wasn’t there all along.

A dropped ceiling was removed, and a row of windows along the original ceiling are now uncovered. They were part of the original construction, Teodosiadis said, based on photos of the building he looked up at the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum in North Bend.

“The pictures showed that the windows had to be there,” he said, and they were probably walled over,  both inside and out, some time after the 1940s.

The “new” windows will provide more light in the bakery and, even though the bakery is surrounded by other buildings, a scenic view, too.

“You can see Mount Si out the windows, almost all the way back,” said Teodosiadis, stepping off the distance from the storefront to the counters, mostly still in place at the back of the shop.

Although the bakery gained a view, it also lost something, the Alpine façade that had been a prominent feature of many North Bend businesses in a move to increase tourism to the city.

“It was the last one that was still around from that effort in the ‘70s,” said Teodosiadis.

Inside, there’s new paint, new wainscoting, and a bit of furniture rearrangement, too. Some of the counters have been moved and a window display will be replaced by more seating.

There will also be a subtle change to the bakery’s name.

“My wife is Georgia, so it will be called Georgia’s Bakery,” Teodosiadis said.

The Teodosiadis family had already owned the George’s Bakery building for about a year, buying it from Jean Macris, the widow of George and the owner of the adjoining Nature’s Marketplace. They hadn’t planned on running a bakery until McKeown and Stokesberry said they wanted to retire.

“I wanted to keep it a bakery,” Teodosiadis said. “It was really important to us. We couldn’t find anyone willing to do it, so…”

So he and Georgia, along with their four children, ages 23 to 12, decided to take it on. Neither of them are professional cooks, said Teodosiadis, but “first and foremost, I’m a good eater.”

They, like Macris, are also Greek, and are considering adding such Greek specialties Spanakopita, and loukomades to the menu, eventually.

For now, though, the menu is not going to look any different.

“The doughnuts are good, the maple bars are good, the apple fritters are good, the quiche is good,” he said. “None of that is going away.”

As Teodosiadis talks about the future, a small group walks by on the sidewalk. There’s scaffolding over the entire storefront, and two men are at work on the façade, but they peek in the window anyway, hopeful that the bakery is open.

“Just being closed, you can tell people miss it,” Teodosiadis said.

He’s seen a lot of that kind of thing, and so was anxious to get the bakery re-opened. Last week, he said, a cycling club rode up, and one of the members told him the Bakery was on their regular route. Later, a father and his young son came by. They told Teodosiadis that they always stopped at George’s on their way to the mountains, and again on their way back home.

Teodosiadis hopes the community approves of the renovations, and the continuity. He plans to participate in farmers markets and the upcoming Jazz Walk, as always, and to offer local products soon.

“To me, it’s not a drastic change,” he said. “We just want to be that bakery, where people come together.”

George’s Bakery is located at 127 West North Bend Way, (425) 888-0632.

The Alpine facade of George’s Bakery was removed earlier this month during a remodel, to reveal a row of windows from the original 1928 construction.

George’s Bakery alums, Jean Macris, owner of Nature’s Marketplace and widow of George Macris, with Joe McKeown and Kathy Stokesberry, who recently sold the North Bend shop.