Ecklof Bakery and Deli owner Chad Ecklof, left, and his father Rick Ecklof, welcomed customers back inside on Monday after a two-month closure due to COVID-19. P-J photo by Jay Young

At 4 a.m. on Monday morning Chad Ecklof and the staff at Ecklof Bakery and Deli finally relit the flame on their oven after a lengthy shutdown, streaming the happy moment live on Facebook for customers to see.

The bakery closed its doors for two months due to COVID-19, but is happily welcoming customers back this week with special offers and a celebratory lunch party on Friday.

“When we closed, I did a live video on Facebook where I showed everybody the oven going off and seeing the flame extinguishing,” Ecklof said. “I explained to the customers, this is the longest the oven will be cold for the 64 years we’ve been in business. I had a whole bunch of people online at 4 o’clock in the morning waiting to see the oven light up, so that was kind of interesting.”

Ecklof and his bakers got an early start at 2 a.m., prepping fresh bread and sweets for the day. Before reopening their doors to the public, the Ecklof staff took some time to get back into the swing of things last week.

“We had to kind of work ourselves back into it,” Ecklof said. “So last week we decided to do a cleaning routine, and we got everybody in last week to clean the place up and get everything ready. Just get everything organized and straightened out. I put them on a regular shift so that way they kind of got used to coming back to work again.”

Ecklof said that business was steadily picking up throughout the morning on Monday.

“They are coming in more steady now, I put the sign out. I think it is just a matter of getting the word out,” Ecklof said just before the lunch rush.

Friday, the bakery will hold its grand reopening party outside, with live music from The Probables from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

All week, customers wearing Ecklof shirts will get 10% off their orders, and there will also be a giveaway for a year’s supply of iconic pink-stripe cookies.

Friday, all customers will get a free giveaway ticket with their order, while customers wearing Ecklof shirts will get an additional five giveaway entries.

Anyone shopping with an American flag pink-stripe cookie shirt on during the parking lot party will get an additional ten raffle entry tickets.

“The raffle is going to be a year’s supply of pink stripe cookies. So that is a dozen cookies a week for a year,” Ecklof said.