Don’s Bakery Is Back — Thanks to a 24-Year-Old Who Grew Up Behind the Counter
Some businesses are so woven into a region’s identity that their closure feels less like a business story and more like a death in the family. That’s roughly the reaction Muskoka had this spring when word spread that Don’s Bakery — the Bala institution that’s been turning out scones, Chelsea buns and butter tarts since 1947 — was on the verge of shutting down for good.
The bakery, perched at Portage Landing next to Bala Falls, has outlasted five separate owners and nearly 80 cottage seasons. Generations of Muskoka regulars have built entire road trips around a stop there. So when its most recent owners, Bryan and Jana Foster, filed for bankruptcy this year after 16 seasons running the place, it looked like an era was quietly closing for good.
Enter Lily McDonald. The 24-year-old Toronto resident spent her childhood summers in Bala and worked behind Don’s counter for seven seasons — it was her first job, following in the footsteps of her mother, who also worked there and met McDonald’s father at the bakery. In McDonald’s own words, working at Don’s is simply what you do growing up in Bala: you start at the bakery, then maybe graduate to a summer job at the Kee or a local pub. It’s been part of her life for as long as she can remember.
McDonald first learned the bakery was in trouble in April, on a trip up to Bala to return a wedding cake. She reached out to the Fosters about buying the business, and for a few weeks it looked like a straightforward handoff was underway — the Fosters connected her with the landlord, staff and vendors, and even emailed staff on April 22 announcing her as the new owner heading into the 2026 season.
But the sale itself never closed. As negotiations continued, disagreements emerged over the bakery’s outstanding debts, and by early May, McDonald’s lawyer had advised her against proceeding, citing business liabilities that reportedly exceeded what the Fosters had represented. On May 8, McDonald told Jana Foster she wouldn’t be moving forward with the purchase as originally proposed. Instead, she negotiated directly with the building’s landlord for a new lease on the space — meaning no equipment, recipes or branding technically changed hands through a sale, since the deal that would have transferred those assets fell apart.
That distinction became a public sticking point. After McDonald reopened, the Fosters pushed back on social media, and Jana Foster later told local media that McDonald hadn’t purchased or owned anything — only signed a new lease for the premises. McDonald’s team has maintained that, given the bankruptcy proceedings, a conventional sale simply wasn’t possible, and that leasing the space and rebuilding the business from there was the only realistic path to keeping the bakery open at all.
Whatever the legal particulars, McDonald moved fast. Within about three weeks of that April visit, she’d secured the lease, pulled together a team, and reopened the doors under the Don’s Bakery name on May 15 — narrowly saving the bakery’s nearly 80-year streak of opening for the summer season. The new operation has leaned into continuity where it can, with branding that nods to “Don’s way,” references to original recipes, and McDonald taking her place as what’s being called the bakery’s sixth owner.
However the ownership question eventually gets sorted out, the practical result is the one most Muskoka regulars actually care about: the ovens are running, the counter is staffed, and a bakery that’s outlasted five owners and nearly 80 years now has a sixth who grew up inside it. For anyone planning a summer trip through cottage country, Don’s is open, and the butter tarts haven’t gone anywhere.