CityView Magazine

34 | April 2016 Photography by Kiara Love business The Sweet Life at Superior Bakery BY ALEXANDRIA RAPPE Y ou know how in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory you, along with the children, experience Wonka's world of chocolate waterfalls, chocolate eggs and chocolate bars? Well, when you step into Fayette- ville's Superior Bakery, you are also transported into another world in itself with everything sweet, glazed, sprin- kled and filled with delicacy. It essentially was a small thought from John S. Poulos that grew into the fine and well-loved establishment. Pou- los was only 20, with a first-grade educa- tion, when he immigrated to the United States from Greece. He was wandering downtown when he happened to stum- ble upon a bakery. He was surprised. He didn't realize America had such a thing. In Athens, Greece, he spent his time working at a bakery. at was 1951. And soon enough, the idea of "maybe one day" became a reality five years later with the help of his wife, Kay. Un- der the Poulos', Superior Bakery opened in 1956 on Raeford Road and was there until 1971. Superior Bakery has since resided on Hope Mills Road, currently owned by son, Nick Poulos. Nick attempted to do something dif- ferent. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and studied business management and banking, with the hopes of finding a job and "figuring it out." But as he says "life happens" and "29 years later I'm still here." He recalled his parents, John. S. and his mother Kay were a "power couple." "It was a partnership 100 percent. You don't hear just 'John.' It has always been 'John and Kay,'" he said. His mother helped out with everything, including the finances. Kay herself is also origi- nally from Greece, immigrating to the states when she was only 16-years-old in 1948. e two of them met in Virgin- ia when John S. traveled there to meet his brother's fiancée. Only did they learn later that the villages they grew up in Greece neighbored each other. Poulos and his siblings grew up and labored in the kitchen, baking daily. Spring breaks, summer breaks, all through college, he was there helping out. Poulos even remembers getting his The Formula for Success Nick Poulos starts his morning before the sun is awake, tending to administrative work such as counting up orders, checking production sheets, but also making sure he bakes with the guys, too.

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