If your family’s Thanksgiving table has a buttermilk chess pie on it, there’s a good chance somebody made the drive to Slaton for it. The Slaton Bakery, at 109 S. 9th St. on the town square about 20 miles southeast of Lubbock, has been baking for more than a century. It has been in the Wilson family since 1943.
It’s a small storefront with a big reach. Its vanilla wafers are on H-E-B and United Supermarkets shelves across Texas, but inside, it still feels like the neighborhood bakery it has always been.
A century on the square
The bakery dates to 1923, when two Slaton bakeries, the Blue Ribbon and City Bakery, combined, according to the bakery’s own history. The early years were rocky. The Slatonite reported that the business changed hands 10 times in its first 20 years.
Then, in 1943, Barney and Ollie Mae Wilson bought it. Their grandson Chad Wilson told The Slatonite that his grandfather became a baker after the family farm was taken for what’s now Fort Hood. The couple raised six children and ran the bakery for 30 years, through World War II rationing of sugar and flour. During the Civil Rights era, Chad said, the bakery supplied minority-owned businesses when other area businesses would not.
In 1973, the couple’s youngest son, Sherrell, and his wife, Robin, took over, and they are still listed as co-owners. In 1982, the bakery moved back to 9th Street, which, as the family likes to point out, was its original location. Chad joined in 1994, and the Texas Historical Commission put up a historical marker in 2009.
Firsts from a small-town oven
The Wilsons say the bakery was the one that introduced sliced hamburger and hot dog buns to Texas. The Texas Historical Commission puts it a little more cautiously: the region. Either way, it started out as a wholesale bread operation before becoming the from-scratch pastry shop people know today.
Chad told The Slatonite the bakery was also the first in West Texas to sell homemade flour tortillas commercially, and they’re still one of its best sellers. Barney had a famous “pineapple” filling made from squash. He never shared the recipe, the THC blog reports, and “took it to the grave with him.” During the 2023 centennial, Chad’s father said he dreamed his late father gave him the recipe. The next day he handed Chad a spoonful. “It tasted just like pineapple,” Chad told the THC.
How a vanilla wafer went statewide
The wafers took off because of a few devoted customers. About two decades ago, Chad and his father noticed people driving as far as two hours to buy out the whole stock, according to the THC. The Wilsons started making more and began selling to United Supermarkets, Market Street and other stores in 2012.
In 2015, the wafers took first place in H-E-B’s Quest for Texas Best, as Supermarket News reported at the time, and they and the bakery’s gingersnaps went onto H-E-B shelves. The bakery’s timeline says it bought the old West Side Church of Christ building for its cookie factory. Today it turns out half a million bags of wafers a year, the THC says. “It’s a bit cheesy, but we like to say that our cookies are heavenly because of that,” Chad told the THC.
The bakery has also earned the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Treasure Business Award, which honors long-running Texas businesses. “It’s awesome, definitely a privilege and an honor,” said Chad, who goes by “chief cookie officer.” He grew up in the bakery. “As soon as I could reach the sink, I was learning how to wash dishes,” he told the THC. “It’s just part of my identity.”
What to get for Thanksgiving
The bakery’s menu reads like a holiday checklist:
- Pies: pumpkin, pecan, buttermilk chess, apple, Dutch apple, peach, cherry, apricot, and chocolate, lemon or coconut meringue
- For the table: dinner rolls and cheese rolls by the dozen, homemade white bread, hard rolls and flour tortillas
- For dessert trays: pecan sandies, Mexican wedding cookies, butterscotch pecan squares, banana pudding and cookie trays in 12- and 16-inch sizes
- For the dog: yes, there are Doughnuts for Doggies
We didn’t find a holiday order form or deadline online, so call ahead at (806) 828-3253 if you want to reserve pies. Plan your trip around the hours, too. The bakery is open Tuesday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it’s closed Sunday and Monday.
Make it a Slaton morning
An early drive down U.S. 84 gets you there for kolaches, cinnamon rolls or a raspberry-filled “jelly john” while the trays are still full. Look for the historical marker out front. For more Thanksgiving week plans, see our Lubbock Thanksgiving and Black Friday guide.
We’re working to add the bakery’s Thanksgiving order details. If you have a Slaton Bakery holiday memory, tell us and we may share it.
Sources
- The Slaton Bakery, Our Story: https://www.theslatonbakery.com/our-story
- The Slaton Bakery, Menu: https://www.theslatonbakery.com/menu
- Texas Historical Commission, Andy Rhodes, 'Generations of Goodness' (Nov. 25, 2025): https://thc.texas.gov/blog/generations-goodness
- Texas Historical Commission Atlas, Slaton Bakery marker: https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5507015834
- The Slatonite, 'Slaton Bakery to celebrate 100th birthday with festivities' (June 8, 2023): https://www.slatonitenews.com/2023/06/08/slaton-bakery-to-celebrate-100th-birthday-with-festivities/
- Supermarket News, H-E-B Quest for Texas Best winners (2015): https://www.supermarketnews.com/center-store/gelato-vanilla-wafers-pie-named-h-e-b-s-texas-best-
- Featured photo: The Slaton Bakery, Slaton, TX, by Billy Hathorn via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
