Freeport Bakery, the Land Park institution at 2966 Freeport Blvd, is changing hands. Owners Marlene and Walter Goetzeler, who bought the bakery in 1987, are selling it to Lisa Calk, owner of Ettore’s Bakery & Café in Arden Arcade. The couple is preparing to retire on September 7, with the sale coming together after they began working out details with Calk back in June.
The Goetzelers built Freeport into one of Sacramento’s most recognizable bakeries, known for elaborate custom cakes, fresh fruit tarts and chocolate dipped shortbread that became staples at birthdays, weddings and office celebrations across the city. Other buyers had approached them over the years, but none felt like the right fit until Calk.
Calk and her daughter Veronica, Ettore’s general manager, have been longtime Freeport customers themselves, and the two bakeries already share a close relationship, loaning each other ingredients and equipment when one runs short. According to Abridged by PBS KVIE, Marlene said, “We know them, and we know what kind of people they are. We have really similar values, and it’s just a really good fit.” Marlene added that Calk plans to keep Freeport exactly as it is.
The sale marks the end of an era built on an unlikely origin story: Walter, raised in a Bavarian baking family in Germany, met Marlene at a San Diego bookshop where she happened to be looking for a German tutor. The two later moved to Sacramento to open a bakery in a more affordable market, eventually growing Freeport into a full line, scratch bakery with a staff of about 50.
