After months of negotiations with the City—including its Cultural Heritage Commission—it official. Filipino staple Gemmae Bake Shop will move into the now-abandoned Fire Station 9 in Bixby Knolls. The bakery’s owners, the Tolentino family, closed escrow just a few days ago and are now beginning the long process of redoing the interior to turn it into Gemmae’s second location.
A fire station bakery? Gemmae Bake Shop has decided to do something rather cool.
“We. Bought. A. Fire. Station.”
These are the words of Catherine Tolentino, the daughter of founder Priscella and current co-owner of Gemmae. Her bubbly, rightfully excited words come at a full circle moment. 45 years ago, her mother launched the Gemmae Bake Shop brand in the Philippines. And, over three decades ago, brought it here to a home in West Long Beach.
“It does feel like a new era for Gemmae,” Catherine said, standing in the station’s garage where trucks once parked. “And while my mom is definitely excited about it, she has assured me this is my project,” she said, laughing. “There’s just so much possibility—and I think that is what is exciting.”
And by possibility, she is not exaggerating: She is working with what is essentially a creative blank slate.
What, exactly, will Gemmae Bake Shop at Fire Station 9 look like? That’s a long road ahead.
Firstly, she’s working with John Thomas—who donated his time to the project pro bono because of his love of FDR-era projects like Fire Station 9—and Jan Van Dijs—a man who has no shortage of experience with refurbishing and reimagining historic buildings, from the Art Theatre to the Psychic Temple to the Edison. These two powerhouses will help Catherine and the family achieve two things.
One is to follow the guidelines set forth by the Cultural Heritage Commission regarding what can and can’t be altered in a historic building.
“Firstly, we are not allowed to alter the exterior in any major fashion—and that includes the tower feature, which firemen used to hang hoses in to dry,” Catherine said, pointing up to a hole leading to the small tower from the building’s second floor. “As for the interior, we were asked to keep the mock fireplace and the ceiling inside the garage—both of which we’re happy to do.”
The garage ceiling is beautiful: Entirely wood-fabricated, buttressing a three-sided angular roof, the feature could be a stand-out depending on the design—which leads to the second thing John and Jan will help Catherine do: Provide a design and layout that’s fitting for a bakery while also showing off the space’s gorgeous features.
“Right now, we have no idea what it is going where or how it will look,” Catherine said. We have yet to determine what walls are load-bearing or where would be best for ovens. We begin fumigation this week, and then it’s to the drawing boards to see how we can turn this into Gemmae.”
So how did a fire station—especially a historic one—come up for sale?
The City of Long Beach listed the station as surplus land in October 2022 after it decided it was inefficient as a fire station. The city then opted to open a new Fire Station 9 up the way at 4101 Long Beach Blvd. Ultimately, City officials had to turn to a broker in 2023 after zero bids were placed on the historic station.
Despite calls for preserving the entirety of the building, the City felt it would increase its chances for sale if some freedoms were provided—explicitly allowing for the alteration of the interior so a new business could accommodate itself. Gemmae Bake Shop emerged as just that kind of buyer in November 2023.
Following that, Catherine and the City went through a 60-day escrow period. And as of July 31, the Tolentino family were the new owners of a fire station.
The history of Gemmae Bake Shop melds Filipino and Long Beach culture into one sweet treat.
Over 30 years ago, Prescilla Tolentino decided to uproot herself from the Philippines and come to the United States. While no small feat in and of itself, it was even more complicated than solely emigrating to the U.S. While still in the Philippines, Prescilla opened her first bakery in 1979, Gemmae Bake Shop. The name? “Something unique,” she insisted, so she took her astrology sign, Gemini, and combined it with the month she was born in, May. “Gemmae.”
A decade later, the brand was such a success with its focus on classic Filipino baked goods like ube loaves, ensaymadas, pandesals, and masons that it would eventually become a chain with more than ten locations across the many islands of the Philippines.
Of course, with growth comes even more ambition. With some much-needed familial support, she felt she could take Gemmae and her family beyond the islands.
“My mother had grown her brand to 13 shops—we closed the last one over in the Philippines in 2021,” Catherine said. “She was ballsy: She had everything to lose—closed ten shops when she moved here—and was like, ‘Screw it.’ The bravest person I know is that woman.”
In 1993, at the southwest corner of Willow Street and Easy Avenue in West Long Beach, Prescilla opened the first (and only) American outpost of Gemmae Bake Shop in a small but growing, Filipino and Filipino-American community.
And the fact that this West Long Beach legend is now being extended into Bixby Knolls proves that some stories are finished with a cherry on top. Or, in this case, a dollop of halaya.
Gemmae Bakle Shop’s second location will be located at 3917 Long Beach Blvd.
