Squamish food beat: Golden Crust closes doors after 22 years in town

After 22 years of baking sweet and savoury treats, Golden Crust Specialties bakery is closing its doors in Squamish. 

Husband and wife duo Patricia and Wade Yendall kicked off 2025 by breaking the news to their customers and friends on social media. 

“We kept putting it off; we were dreading making the announcement because … well, what do you say and how do you do it,” Patricia Yendall told The Squamish Chief.

“It’s been 22 years here in Squamish and we are moving, which is the main reason we are closing, but it’s also time for us to go on an adventure and move into the next stage of our lives.”

The Golden Crust experience

Prior to opening Golden Crust, Yendall was a pastry chef working at a variety of hotels all the way from Whistler to New Zealand. 

But it was the little home bakery she started in 2003 that opened the door to locals’ hearts—and stomachs. 

“Some of our long-term customers would remember going there and picking up their baked goods,” she said.

“Then a few years later, we moved to this spot, and [we’ve] been here for 17 years,” she added, of their 5-38924 Queens Way location.

“It’s funny because a lot of people don’t know us because we don’t have a sign on the road, so we kind of call ourselves the secret pie shop because we are tucked away in this old building in the industrial park.”

Throughout those years, Yendall, her husband and two children, Vanessa and Jaxon, would sell their baked goods at a number of markets along the Sea to Sky, including one of the very first Squamish Farmer’s Market (before it was named that).

“We were one of the original Squamish vendors but we haven’t done this one in the last five years. Back then, there were like five people, and it was called the Wild Cherry Market,” she said.

Since then, pocket pies, fruit pies and butter tarts have been the best sweet sellers for Golden Crust, with the chicken and vegetable pie being the savoury favourite. 

Highlights over the years

As you can imagine, there are plenty of highs and lows to be had over 22 years of business, but the top thing Yendall cherishes the most is the relationships made with the community.

“Christmas and Thanksgiving are a highlight for us [in the store]. People are always so happy to come in and get good home-baking style goods. They’re always so appreciative and thankful at those times,” she said.

“And with the markets, the highlight was the relationships we built with customers and vendors. Just to be able to please people and make them happy, it’s why we work so hard.”

Another key moment for them was when they shared their kitchen with Norwegian baking company Din Baker during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“They approached us because they were looking for a space for their bakers to bake bread for their team, and they liked ours. Then they sent all their ingredients over and filled our whole loading bay with Norwegian flour and all kinds of stuff,” Yendall said.

“It was pretty fun because they baked for our store, and they didn’t want any money for it. They just said, ‘We’ll bake bread, and you can sell it,’ and they were very generous. 

“They taught us to bake their bread, and we continued making it for a while, but we stopped because we didn’t have the equipment for it, and we were doing it all by hand—and my hands were killing me from it.”

What’s next?

Yendall said the plan is to relocate, most likely to Vancouver Island to pursue an “idyllic next stage of life.”

“We will probably move to Vancouver Island because we want to stay on the coast, and our son lives there. I want a garden and to grow food and have some acreage—just a different type of lifestyle,” she said. 

The duo plans to take a year off work to transition to life out of Squamish and will spend a portion of that travelling and adventuring.

“We want to visit friends and family and go on a road trip across Canada and visit friends overseas,” Yendall said.

“Because when you’re working like we have been, when everyone else is off, we’re not; it’s the opposite, so we never get to see family during the holidays and things.

“So we are going on an adventure.”

While they currently have no plans to open up a bakery on Vancouver Island, Yendall did say she plans to keep baking for people.

“We want to have our own property with our own kitchen. Maybe one day during the week, we would let people come and get pies or something, but we wouldn’t do a seven-day-a-week bakery. 

“Maybe we’ll do a local farmers market, who knows.”

One thing they are looking into is releasing a cookbook.

“We may do a recipe book in the future with our Golden Crust story and recipes,” she said.

A community send-off

Golden Crust will keep producing products until the end of January, but after that, they will be packing up shop and selling whatever goodies they have left. 

For those wanting to say goodbye in person, their last day of business will be Feb. 15, where they’ll host a drop-in day for the community.

“It will be a customer appreciation day where people can drop in all day, and we will have coffee, tea and goodies,” Yendall said.

“It’s so people can just come and have visits with us because we have good relationships with a lot of our customers.”

Yendall said the reaction from the community to their impending closure has been heartwarming.

“People have been sad, but they’re very happy for us, which makes us feel good. They’ve just flooded us with comments on Facebook about how much they valued and appreciated us over the years,” she said.

“One thing about the people of Squamish that we love is that they appreciate the fact that we want to live a life, and they understand the benefit of just living and not just existing.”

Reflecting on her business experience in Squamish, Yendall said she is most happy that they added value to the community. 

“I think that was all we could have asked for. I know my husband was thinking we should have done more with the business and made a coffee shop or something similar, but I told him, ‘I don’t think you realize what we’ve done—we’ve added joy to people’s lives,’” she said. 

“I don’t think I'll ever stop trying to please people; that won’t ever change because that’s what I love to do. So anything that happens in the future, hopefully people will come.”

Grab one of the final treats from Golden Crust. The store is open Tuesday to Saturday between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.