Leske's, Legendary Bay Ridge Bakery, Closes

Sometimes, I suffer from bad timing, and don't get to visit a classic New York institution before it bites the dust.

Not in the case of Leske's Bakery, the last Scandinavian bake shop in Bay Ridge. I checked it out last March. I was sadly informed by a reader over the weekend that the store closed soon after, on May 29. There was apparently an issue with the lease.

This reader told me: "When I was growing up in the 60's, Leske's was one of the three Scandinavian bakeries in the area. The other two were Pettersen's and Olson's on 8th ave. They were Norwegian bakeries."

All our gone, now. Very few vestiges of the old Scandinavian community left now.