Two Fraus Bakery
This post is a part of a larger oral history project: Babka and Beyond: Bread, Grains and Baked Goods in Western PA. To find out more about this project and listen to full interviews, click here.
Nestled forty five miles from Downtown, Harmony Pennsylvania was once the home to a small community of religious followers of John Rapp, known as The Harmonists. The town was established in the early 1800s and has remained a destination for beautiful Western Pennsylvania farmland and early European style architecture. Tourists looking for a quick bite can often end up at Two Fraus bakery, owned by Joanie Sinz and Kiersten Pfeffer, best friends and collaborators.
Two Fraus bakery serves German inspired treats from sweets, to bread, to pepperoni rolls. Owners Sinz and Peffer met through mutual friends and became fast baking friends. Very few items for sale remain the same day to day, often influenced by the imaginations of Sinz and Pfeffer. On a quiet Wednesday morning, customers can find sourdough bread, cinnamon rolls, potato chocolate chip cookies, and pizza hand pies behind the counter. Everyone is undoubtedly met with a warm smile and greeting from both Sinz and Pfeffer, who spend most of their time concocting new recipes behind the glass windows of the kitchen.
Video by David Bernabo
The Two Fraus is not only a bakery, but a business centered on the friendship of Sinz and Pfeffer. Saturdays are filled with even more chaos as the husbands and children of Sinz and Pfeffer work to make dozens of Bavarian pretzels for the bakery. This happens only one day a week and is probably the best representation of the values of friendship and family that Two Fraus holds so closely. These sorts of spaces are hard to find and leave an impact on every customer who visits, likely leaving with more than just the treat in their hand.
Emeran Irby
Oral History Coordinator, CRAFT