Name of business: Sunrise Bakery

Type of business: Bakery and cafe

Location: 1561 Geer Rd.

Hours of operation: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday; closed Sundays

Contact info: 632-9400, www.sunrisebakeryca.com

History of business: A family’s love for baking – and a few special recipes – has resulted one of Turlock’s longest-lived bakeries, which now sells products across the nation.

It all started when Filameh Givargis simply could not stop baking.

“My mother-in-law has always had a passion for baking,” Sargon Eddy, Givargis’ son-in-law and a co-owner of the business, said.

Givargis’ recipe for nazook, an Armenian baked good popular with Assyrian people, had developed a bit of a reputation in the community.

“Everybody loved it, and she decided she wanted to get in this business,” Eddy said.

Sunshine Bakery, then owned just by Givargis and her husband Ebrahim Givargis,  first opened in 1991 in the shopping center at the corner of Minnesota Avenue and Geer Road. Five years later, with business booming, the bakery moved to the site of the old Polly Ann Bakery in downtown Turlock.

In 1998 the bakery moved to its current location on Geer Road, but still bakes out of the old Polly Ann site. The old downtown storefront has been sectioned off from the bakery, and leased to new tenants.

The lavash bread baked by Sunrise Bakery in that old Polly Ann Bakery is now shipped – and sold – across the country.

Business specialty: Sunrise Bakery still sells that famous nazook, alongside other Assyrian delights like pirogh, kadr, and tabagha, a cake layered with homemade custards.

Sunrise also sells a full line of more traditionally-European baked goods, like Danish, coffee cakes, cookies, and red velvet cake. Custom, beautifully-decorated wedding cakes and birthday cakes are also on offer.