Sweet Lady Jane founder Jane Lockhart.
David Livingston/Getty Images
Coming after a huge wave of restaurant closings in Los Angeles in 2023 — including The Palm Beverly Hills, Woodspoon, Animal, Off Vine, Mohawk Bend, Kinn, Café Tropical and Craft — Hollywood has been hit with another blow: the loss of some of its favorite treats. The expiration of two beloved bakeries, Sweet Lady Jane and Milk Jar Cookies, has saddened many in the industry and led to questions about the sustainability of small L.A. businesses.
“No. no. no. heartbroken,” posted Blake Lively on Sweet Lady Jane’s Instagram page after it announced that the legendary celeb-loved bakery, founded by Jane Lockhart and famed for its luscious Triple Berry Cake, was shutting down its six locations Dec. 31 after 35 years in business. “Sales are not enough to continue doing business in the state of California,” the bakery’s post read. (Lockhart could not be reached for comment.) “It was just shocking,” says Lisa Olin of L.A.’s Cake Monkey Bakery about Sweet Lady Jane’s closure. Sweet Lady Jane devotees have included Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Kourtney Kardashian, Kurt Russell, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, and Demi Moore; in 2014, fans Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen even invested $2million in the bakery.
And Jan. 15 will be the final day to enjoy the sweets at the two locations (Miracle Mile and Encino) of Milk Jar Cookies, whose fans include Margot Robbie, Wanda Sykes, Seth Rogen and Danny Trejo.
“I’m devastated, quite frankly. It’s certainly not how I saw my company going,” says Milk Jar Cookies owner Courtney Cowan, a former TV producer. “What we do, we do with such passion and purpose. For us, it’s always been about more than cookies. We have really ingratiated ourselves with the community and we are all just very, very sad.”
Adds producer Brett Gursky, a Milk Jar Cookies and Sweet Lady Jane enthusiast, “There must be someone in the industry who loves those cakes and cookies and can come in and save these places.”
Also in December, Diamond Bakery, a mainstay for Jewish desserts and bread in the Fairfax District since 1946, announced that it was closing (though their recipes were sold to wholesale bakery Bread Los Angeles).
Small businesses in L.A. are facing an avalanche of issues. Still recovering from the COVID shutdown, owners say they face maddening holdups with building permits, stratospheric rent, raises in minimum wage, rising food costs and issues with the unhoused population.
The Hollywood strikes also hurt: “When those orders cease and evaporate for six months, that makes a massive impact,” says Cowan. “We fully supported the strike as a concept … I personally went to the picket lines many times and handed out cookies. We offered discounts, and I think it was a really important thing that was necessary. But what I don’t think is okay, is that in any labor dispute either side should be able to refuse to talk for weeks on end while a city disintegrates below them.”
And bakeries face their own unique challenges, with small margins and the need for constant restocking: “You’re dealing with perishable items,” Olin says. “It’s not a clothing store, and it’s not a restaurant where a customer comes in and says, ‘Oh, I want to order this’, and you’re making it to order — you have to have your case full. That’s what a bakery is.”
Cowan now hopes she can help other small business owners thrive in L.A. “I have a lot of things I would like to bring to city council, into the mayor’s office, so I might start with that and make a little noise,” she says. “It might be too late for my business, but I have so many colleagues that are hanging by the same thread, and I’m not waxing poetic when I say it is dire — and small businesses need people’s support.”
A version of this story first appeared in the Jan. 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.