By Anne W. Semmes
There is an historic bakery in town – Black Forest Pastry Shop, 52 Lewis Street, circa 1982 – that is reverberating with concern for its longtime front-of-the-shop welcomer Dan Puffer now aged 55 fighting Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. But efforts on his behalf by the community are writ large. Thanks to the Facebook initiative of his sister-in-law Heather Benvenuto – a DanPufferGoFundMe campaign has brought in nearly $120,000 of caring support for his family raised since his diagnosis in early January.
“The response from the community has been overwhelming,” says the baker in the back of the store, Herb Mueller, co-owner with Dan and son of the original Black Forest Shop owners, the late Edgar and his widow Louise Mueller. Herb Mueller cites 28 years of partnering with Dan in the Shop. “He’s been the face of the shop,” notes Herb. “I’m more in the back doing the baking. I make it look good. He sells it. His personality is contagious, and people recognize that out there.”
Yes, Dan was busy passing over those chocolate truffles, and breakfast pastries from that Danish case – “sticky buns that we’ve been making the same way my dad made them 50 years ago,” tells Herb. Yes, perhaps learning to make them back when Edgar was working for William Greenberg Desserts in New York City.
Dan knows the sweet tooth favorites of “lots of people, their families, for generations, when the kids were babies and got married,” shares Herb. “We did the birthday cakes.” While talking Herb gets a request to inscribe a chocolate iced birthday cake. Surely Dan has also been handing over those super-selling personalized Chocolate Mousse Bombes.
There are longtime customers like Dick Schulze who has worked with Dan and Herb to even create his own special cake. “Herb mixes Amaretto into the vanilla cake layer dough. The filling is apricot jam,” shares Schulze.” Customers have reportedly requested from Dan,” he adds, “if they could put an order in for a Dick Schulze cake!”
Schulze will be bringing home the Hot Cross Buns Black Forest bakes this Lent to serve at his church. “They’re historically baked for Good Friday – an English tradition,” notes Schulze. I’ve tried them in England, but the Black Forest version is unquestionably the best!”
Then there are those Raspberry Almond Tarts that are a Schulze favorite. “They are somewhat like a Linzer torte, with raspberry filling,” he tells. “The dough has very much the Austrian spicy flavor.” Schulze has German ancestors as does Herb whose parents came from Germany, his mother Louise specifically from the Black Forest hence the Shop’s name.
There’s no question that father Edgar had attended the finest pastry making schooling in Germany and son Herb is a chip off the block finishing up his baking and pastry training at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, NY. He was happily employed when in 1995 his parents retired and “they kind of sucked me back in,” says Herb. And didn’t he have a friend down the street in Riverside called Dan Puffer. And didn’t he work in a corporate cafeteria in Stamford?”
“He worked in the front as well,” says Herb. “I knew right away this guy was brilliant with customers, and he can talk his head off.” “Let’s do this together,” Herb offered. And Herb would “strictly focus on sweets,” unlike his dad who would “get up at one in the morning to bake breads,” shares Herb. “I’m much more into the cake making and decorating.” Yes, from the age of ten.
Dan and Herb have also shared softball over the years with their Black Forest Softball Team. As of early February, Herb was visiting with Dan for a “little Super Bowl party for close friends.” He shares, “It was good to spend time with him away from the bakery setting. It’s one thing to be with him at work all the time. It’s a whole other thing to be able to hang out with him at home.”
Herb is encouraged by the response of aid to Dan’s family in the GoFundMe effort. “That is more to support the family if they need it,” he says. “He has two married sons with a third playing professional hockey in England, and four grandsons.” And the family have all “come back to support him,” says Herb, “as he’s going through all the chemo treatments.”. He calls the GoFundMe effort of Dan’s sister-in-law Heather Benvenuto as “fantastic.”
“Dan knew so many families in town.” Herb shares. “He could tell you the names of all the kids, the parents, and you know that bond comes over time and made him such a special part of the community.”
Laura McKittrick is a second-generation Black Forest fan. “Growing up,” says Laura, “my mom would take my three sisters and me to Black Forest before every holiday to load up on all of the holiday morning goodies.” A favorite is the almond coffee cake devoured while watching the Thanksgiving parade together. At Christmastime her mom would “take us every year to pick out 20-30 boxes of butter cookies to give as gifts to our teachers and local shop owner friends – to this day that tradition continues as well!”
There’s no question that Dan Puffer and his buddy and partner Herb Mueller with their combined talents have been community builders. And weren’t they witness together in 2012 when Herb’s mom Louise generously gave those four historic acres on Round Hill Road to the Greenwich Land Trust where its headquartered now?
But their community building goes on, especially at Easter time, with all those chocolate eggs and lemon bunny cakes, and giant chocolate rabbits lining the walls of the Black Forest Pastry Shop – and don’t forget those Hot Cross Buns.
“Every day is a unique challenge,” tells Herb. “That’s what makes it fun. Today we made a Stadium cake, for a Fantasy Football League. They had their championship and they’re having the party tonight.”
But Herb wants to give a last word. “I’d like to get across that a lot of people say it’s great food and it’s delicious desserts. But you know, it’s more than that. It’s building the relationship with the community, and that’s the part that I took for granted until this GoFundMe. That’s the emotional part for me. When they come back and they’re so supportive.”
