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Very Local: West Homestead staple Nancy B's Bakery owner and others share sweet backstories

For local dessert producers, Happy Day Dessert Factory, La Gourmandine, and Bethel Bakery, community is most important.

Very Local: West Homestead staple Nancy B's Bakery owner and others share sweet backstories

For local dessert producers, Happy Day Dessert Factory, La Gourmandine, and Bethel Bakery, community is most important.

Today on what's on the menu. We'll get our sweet tooth on. We'll meet the old school and new school. So all my flowers of Pittsburgh's finest dessert producers and everyone will refuse to tell us their secret recipe. I'm not giving you my secret to chocolate chip cookies. I can't tell you the secret. I can't tell you. Let's see what's on the menu. We're *** small little town bakery. We've been here 36 years to *** raisin peanut butter. Hershey kiss cookies. Snicker noodles, walnut, ress, thumbprints snowballs. But our big seller the, the the king is the chocolate chip cookies. We move almost 300 dozen *** day of chocolate chip cookies. My name is Michael Runco. I'm the owner of Nancy B's Bakery. And sometimes if they don't know my name, they'll call me Nancy B, which is funny out in public today on the menu is our famous chocolate chip cookie as always. Well, I'm not giving you my secret to chocolate chip cookies, but I'll give you *** secret. What you do is make sure you use good ingredients, the better ingredients you use, the better it's going to turn on. That's pretty much anything in life that's going to get *** little messy. I've always been involved with the business because I had no choice from the age of 14. I was the one that helped. So I did everything. It was interesting. Uh, the years that we were together were *** lot of fun. She comes in every once in *** while. I actually didn't know how much I learned until she wasn't here. You know, I didn't know how much she did until she wasn't here. I thought, uh, what the hell do you do every day when she left? Wooed. I find out my name is Nancy B and I started *** bakery 35 years ago. My dad was *** diabetic, so I just devised *** cookie for him and that's how it started in five years. We were in supermarkets and then my son and I start making up our own recipes and that's where we're at. So it came *** long way. Basically, the chocolate chips. I have to say the chocolate chip cookie after all these years because everybody doesn't. So I do too. We perfected this recipe. We had started with 10 different recipes for the chocolate chips. Ended up coming down to one that actually sold the best. We let all our customers pick about 25 years ago, 26 years ago and they decided that this was the best of the best. We never thought chocolate chip cookies would take off my mom actually didn't even want to make *** chocolate chip cookie at first because she said, well, every bakery has *** chocolate chip cookie. You know, how can we make ours different? So we did make it something that you like and want to taste and hopefully everybody else will catch on and like it too. Anything you do that you enjoy, you're gonna do better than everybody else. I don't get tired of seeing the people that come in. I don't get tired of waking up in the morning and doing something people enjoy. I was in *** big and I pulled in this parking lot. It was like $20 to park there. And I said, this young fellow come out. I said, hey, maybe we can make some kind of deal here, you know, and I had one of their big oatmeal cookies with the icing on it. I slipped him *** cookie and I got in for free. So that cookie was like *** $20 cookie. Every customer that comes in sort of becomes *** family member. Uh, we have *** lot of regulars, *** lot of regulars. I miss all my wonderful customers. I don't get to see them, but then they call and I check on them and, you know, it became like family. And *** friend of mine in Houston, Texas told me about Nancy B cookies. Can you imagine that? Houston Texas. And I live right here in the city. And I've been coming here almost weekly ever since and then Nancy became one of my best friends. She's one of my favorite people on earth. So it's nice to know the people that I know and I get to know them and who they are and their families and their issues and their happiness. And *** friend told me how good their cookies are. And I thought, oh, I don't know. So I came in and I got, oh my God, they're so good. And every time I go to any event I take Nancy Bee's cookies. Every single individual that comes in here is *** family member, whether they know it or not. They help me pay my light bill and I make sure there's *** nice warm cookie on their table. This is one of our famous chocolate chip cookies. Nancy Bee's best. Yeah. Anybody will hand you *** product and let you leave, but no one's gonna really care about how your life is. That actually helps me better suit what they need. If you want pepperoni rolls, we make them pizza, we make and cinnamon rolls, we'll make baked doughnuts, whatever you need, I'll change your oil. We'll find you *** husband, we'll find you *** wife, whatever you need. I make sure that whatever they need when they need it is ready. We're all part of *** greater community.
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Very Local: West Homestead staple Nancy B's Bakery owner and others share sweet backstories

For local dessert producers, Happy Day Dessert Factory, La Gourmandine, and Bethel Bakery, community is most important.

Baked into this episode of "What's on the Menu" are the stories behind four of Pittsburgh's finest family-owned dessert businesses, including Nancy B's Bakery, which has been a staple in West Homestead for over 36 years. The one thing these businesses share in common: a dedication to community and family. Local dessert producers, Happy Day Dessert Factory, La Gourmandine, and Bethel Bakery also share their sweet narratives in this episode.Nancy B's is locally famous for its secret chocolate chip cookie recipe. The bakery's founder, Nancy Runco, said her father's diabetes diagnosis inspired her to create a recipe for him and, subsequently, open a bakery.Since shortly before Nancy's passing in 2022, her son Michael Runco has been managing the family business. Watch the video above to learn about the backstory of Nancy B's Bakery. You can stream full episodes of "What's on the Menu" by downloading the free Very Local app. What is Very Local?Very Local is a streaming app where you can watch local news, original series and more. Keep connected to your hometown with the news team you trust and discover original series and specials that explore your community and beyond.Very Local, from WTAE-TV parent Hearst Television, is available free on all mobile, tablet and connected TV devices.Follow Very Local on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more.

Baked into this episode of "What's on the Menu" are the stories behind four of Pittsburgh's finest family-owned dessert businesses, including Nancy B's Bakery, which has been a staple in West Homestead for over 36 years.

The one thing these businesses share in common: a dedication to community and family. Local dessert producers, Happy Day Dessert Factory, La Gourmandine, and Bethel Bakery also share their sweet narratives in this episode.

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Nancy B's is locally famous for its secret chocolate chip cookie recipe. The bakery's founder, Nancy Runco, said her father's diabetes diagnosis inspired her to create a recipe for him and, subsequently, open a bakery.

Since shortly before Nancy's passing in 2022, her son Michael Runco has been managing the family business.

Watch the video above to learn about the backstory of Nancy B's Bakery.


You can stream full episodes of "What's on the Menu" by downloading the free Very Local app.


What is Very Local?

Very Local is a streaming app where you can watch local news, original series and more. Keep connected to your hometown with the news team you trust and discover original series and specials that explore your community and beyond.

Very Local, from WTAE-TV parent Hearst Television, is available free on all mobile, tablet and connected TV devices.

Follow Very Local on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more.