One of the oldest bakeries in Dublin, Bretzel, on Lennox Street, Dublin 8, - well known for its exotic breads and pastries and with a long history as a Kosher bakery - is on the market through McPeake Auctioneers. The agents are quoting a guide price of £800,000 for the three-storey building which is being sold as a going concern.

The 2,000 sq ft bakery has been in the family of the current owner, Morgan Hackett, since the 1960s when his father, Christy, took over the running of the bakery from its Jewish owner, Mrs Klein. Although not Jewish himself, Christy Hackett had trained as a pastry chef with a Jewish catering company owned by the Danker family and was familiar with the strict and intricate Kosher laws for preparing food.

According to Morgan Hackett, the day-to-day running of the bakery was at one time strictly supervised by the local Jewish community . "Someone would come in early in the day to make sure we were doing things correctly. For example, during Passover, we weren't allowed to use flour, we had to use meal. The bakery would be checked to make sure there wasn't a trace of flour anywhere. Then we'd have a big clean up and go back to using flour again for the rest of the year."

He reckons that there has been a bakery at 1a Lennox Street since the 1870s. When his father took over in the 1960s, there was a 90-year-old mixer on the premises, which he says is still "terrific to work with". "I'd say it wasn't purpose-built as a bakery but was quickly established as one as more and more Jews settled in the area after both World Wars. In those days, it was common to have a house converted into a shop in middle of a row of houses."

In the 1960s and 1970s, when Irish tastes tended towards the traditional, Bretzel built up a reputation for unusual breads and pastries. They sold continental loaves and bread sticks at a time when they were almost unheard of in Dublin. It was only in the 1980s that the Irish began to develop a taste for spicy and seeded bread that they were beginning to notice that a large proportion of their customers were non-Jewish.

With the gradual dwindling of the Dublin Jewish community in recent years, Bretzel was forced to become less specialised. "A few years ago, the Rabbi and myself decided that it was not going to work any more. It was too hard to adhere to all the strict regulations and to source all the correct ingredients and to make the business work."

But although on longer a Kosher bakery, it has never been mainstream. "I never wanted it to be just another corner bakery. We always set out to provide something different that is made by hand, not by machines.".

There are currently over 40 different lines of breads and pastries selling at Bretzel and some of their most popular products include custard pie, gingerbread men, fig triangles, bagels, olive bread, rye bread, tomato breads and a variety of spicy breads.

Ill-health is forcing Morgan Hackett to sell Bretzel, which has dashed his dream to eventually franchise the business. He also had plans for a cafe which would extend to the two upper floors.

The sale includes existing equipment: a Kemper four-bag mixer, two 20 quart Hobart Mixers, an 80 quart Bear mixer, 14 racks, refrigeration for 10 racks, several working tables in different sizes, a Rondo pastry brake, a refrigerated shop counter and a Bun Divider/Mixer.

The building needs modernisation, but its location, reputation and the potential for conversion into a cafe or restaurant over the bakery make it a tasty proposition.