NYT - Why Whoopi Goldberg Is Feuding With a Staten Island Bakery

Nov. 16, 2024

A small sponge cake topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry is the crux of a political skirmish between Whoopi Goldberg and a 146-year-old Staten Island bakery.

Ms. Goldberg said Holtermann’s Bakery, in the heart of New York City’s reddest borough, refused to fill an order placed under her name, perhaps because of her liberal politics.

The bakery’s owner said it wasn’t personal and that politics had nothing to do with it.

Now, the bakery’s phone is ringing off the hook, and customers are lining up to show their support for a Staten Island institution — and their opposition to Ms. Goldberg.

In the final minutes of Wednesday’s episode of“The View,” Ms. Goldberg said she was celebrating her birthday with an old-fashioned pastry, charlotte russe, that had been a favorite of her mother’s.

“I should tell you, charlotte russe has no political leanings,” she said. “And the place that made these refused to make them for me.”

The live audience gasped. Ms. Goldberg’s co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin paused, stricken, forks frozen halfway to their mouths. Another co-host, Sara Haines, spit a forkful of the dessert back onto her plate.

Ms. Goldberg, a native New Yorker, explained that the bakery had turned away her order, citing an equipment problem. But the bakery accepted the same order, this time placed with no mention of her name, a few days later, according to a person familiar with both pastry orders.

“Perhaps they did not like my politics,” said Ms. Goldberg, a Democratic stalwart who, along with the five other hosts of “The View,” backed Kamala Harris.

Ms. Goldberg did not name the bakery on air. But viewers recognized the packaging — a red polka-dot cardboard cup — as the work of Holtermann’s, which is operated out of a weathered storefront in the Great Kills neighborhood by the great-grandchildren of Claus Holtermann, who founded the bakery in 1878. Many locals have been patrons for decades.

The Holtermanns dispute Ms. Goldberg’s insinuation. The bakery’s boiler was broken when the call came in, said Bill Holtermann, a co-owner.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Mr. Holtermann said. “I don’t even have a cellphone. I’m just trying to bake.”

While Mr. Holtermann said that the bakery’s refusal was not politically motivated, on Staten Island, where Donald J. Trump trounced Ms. Harris by more than 30 percentage points, Ms. Goldberg’s umbrage has been a windfall for the bakery.

On Friday, the island’s Republican borough president, Vito Fossella, held a news conference outside the store to “stand up for one of the best families and businesses not just Staten Island but this country would appreciate.”

He called on Ms. Goldberg to apologize: “Just say you’re sorry so we can put this behind us and look forward to a great Thanksgiving and keeping this country great again.”

On Saturday afternoon, the line snaked out the door. People had come from as far away as Philadelphia. Coffee danish rings, cupcakes and coconut custard pies in old-school blue-and-white boxes flew off the shelves. Each fresh batch of charlotte russes sold out in minutes.

“We want to get ‘The View’ canceled,” said Barbara Volpe, 73. “All they care about on that show is politics. They’re always degrading Trump, and we love him here.”

Anthony Saltarelli said he did not buy Ms. Goldberg’s account.

“What she’s insinuating wasn’t true, and I think it backfired,” said Mr. Saltarelli, 58, who lives miles away on the island’s North Shore. “I never come to this part of Staten Island, but today I did.”

In an Instagram post on Friday, Ms. Goldberg apparently remained unswayed by the Holtermanns’ explanation.

“It does seem a little odd,” she said. But she didn’t let the contretemps ruin her special day — or her charlotte russes.

“I enjoyed my delicious dessert and I had a happy, sweet birthday,” she said. “Nothing better than that.”