Betty Ann Food Shop

2008 to 2010

Betty Ann Food Shop (1931 - 2015) was a family owned, second-generation bakery that had been in the Bennington Street neighborhood of East Boston since 1931. Billy's father began to work as a baker around this time, opening his bakeshop on the bottom floor of a historic triple-decker house. The families traditional recipes for their famous donuts were brought to America from Cornwall, England, and trace back to earlier generations of the Scantlebury family. Billy stayed true to his own traditions and used a style of baking which involved one of the last remaining historic coal-fire brick ovens in the city. Billy grew up around the bake shop in East Boston, assisting his father, siblings, two uncles and their wives. They baked all types of donuts, crullers, pies and cakes that made Betty Ann a popular destination for baked goods. During high school, Billy began to work in the bakery on Sunday afternoons, and following college, took over the family business full-time. Billy continued to make pastries in his shop until his passing in 2015, and he was the last generation to carry his family's traditional business.