"It was like seeing your home burnt," said Shannon Harris, whose grandparents, Annie and Raymond Bay, opened the bakery almost 70 years ago.

Harris helps manage the bakery with her parents, Sharon and Mike Pollock.

The fire started overnight the weekend of Jan. 19, 2007, near the back of the building between the first and second floors.

"We didn't think it was that bad until we came back the next day," Mike Pollock said.

"We had to throw away a ton of stuff."

Harris said the bakery had cake orders through August 2007, so Ludger's Cake & Catering, 6120 E. 32nd Place, let the Ann's Bakery staff use its kitchen.

"(Ludger Schulz) basically said, 'Come do what you have to do,'" Harris said.

Ann's reopened this month during the week of Valentine's Day.

"We've been slammed," Mike Pollock said. "We're pleasantly surprised. They're glad we're here. You wonder if you'll get your customer base back."

One loyal customer, Bobby Ross, said it was tough without Ann's.

"(I) cried," he joked. "I'm glad they're back."

Sharon Pollock said at first she was excited to move back into the bakery she grew up in.

"Then it got frustrating, because we would go to get something, and oh, it's not there, or we had to throw it away," she said.

The Pollocks said the bakery could not offer certain items such as pies when it reopened.

"There's still some stuff we can't do because we don't have the equipment," Mike Pollock said.

Sharon Pollock said the bakery should be able to offer its full menu of cakes, pastries and pies this week.

"A lot of (equipment) we ordered, they didn't have it so it was on back order. Some of the things we ordered were wrong, so we had to reorder," she said.

Ross doesn't mind.

He said he tries to shop at the bakery at least once a week.

"They have the best cakes," he said.

But he also enjoys the pastries.

"You can't choose a favorite. It's very hard," he said.

Ann's Bakery, 7 N. Harvard Ave., is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 834-2345.