North Tisbury Bakery Owners Abandon Well-Known Eatery

By IAN FEIN

One year after forcing out family members who ran a popular
up-Island bakery there for roughly a decade, the owners of the Vineyard
Foodshop in North Tisbury appear to have abandoned the business and
reportedly plan to sell the landmark property.

They are also now the subject of a lawsuit, filed by the West
Tisbury board of health in Dukes County Superior Court last week, that
seeks to compel them to cease and desist from discharging wastewater
into a failed septic system.

Listed as defendants in the case are property owner Joyce R. Duarte
of Waterville, Me., her son, Michael Hoyle, and Edgartown attorney
Edward (Peter) Vincent Jr., a co-executor of the estate. None returned
calls for comment this week, and they have not yet answered the
complaint in court.

The town board of health, which is charged with enforcing state and
local health regulations, said in its complaint that the three failed
systems on the property constitute a threat to the safety and welfare of
the public. The town is requesting preliminary and permanent injunctive
relief requiring the defendants to install new systems and pay daily
fines for their failure to abide by an earlier enforcement order.

Though the bakery remains closed, Mr. Hoyle is living in the family
house next door and, according to the complaint, continues to discharge
wastewater into the failed system.

The town lawsuit is the latest turn in a recent saga surrounding the
small family-owned bakery, which for more than five decades served as a
vibrant gathering place for the up-Island community. The building is now
closed, its windows covered with old bakery boxes, and the parking lot
is blocked off with a row of carefully placed stones and stumps. A gate
to the back of the property is adorned with signs that read No
Trespassing and Beware of Dogs.

Humphreys bakery owner Joseph (Michael) Diaz, who worked in the
North Tisbury location for 12 years before Ms. Duarte, his estranged
aunt, forced him out in December 2004, acknowledged this week that it is
sad the family tradition has ended in West Tisbury. But he said business
is thriving at his three down-Island locations, particularly the new
flagship bakery in Vineyard Haven, which opened last August and remained
open year-round.

Humphreys this week was named best bakery and best deli in the
annual Best of the Vineyard awards, published in Martha's Vineyard
Magazine. Mr. Diaz has won best deli each of the last five years, and
best bakery four out of the last six.

"We still see a lot of familiar faces and our dedicated
up-Island customers at the new place," Mr. Diaz said on Wednesday,
working behind the counter at his bakery in Edgartown. "And
regardless of what they are doing or not doing in West Tisbury,
we're still putting out our quality Humphreys products."

The late Argie Humphreys first built the North Tisbury bakery in
1952, and passed it on to his son Bartlett in the 1970s. Bartlett in
1996 then handed operation of the business to Michael and Donna Diaz,
his niece, who leased the building and ran the bakery for the next eight
years. The Diazes also expanded the business to include a delicatessen,
and created the popular Turkey Gobbler sandwich.

Ms. Duarte inherited the building after Bartlett, her brother, died
in 2003, and the following winter she chose not to renew the
Diazes' lease so that her children, the Hoyles, could operate
their own bakery in the building. Ms. Duarte then filed a lawsuit
against Mr. Diaz last May, trying to block him from using the Humphreys
name and recipes at his other down-Island bakeries. A judge denied the
request for a preliminary injunction, and the case was settled quietly
this spring.

Mr. Hoyle opened the Vineyard Foodshop in North Tisbury last August,
and operated a bakery and deli through the fall. But the parking lot
never appeared as full as it had been under Mr. Diaz, and the business
did not reopen this spring. Mr. Diaz this week said he always turned a
healthy profit at that location, and speculated that Mr. Hoyle is unable
to afford necessary upgrades to the septic systems.

"The moral of the story is: They took a very profitable
business, but because they made enemies in the community and were not
willing to put in the required work, they ran it into the ground,"
Mr. Diaz said.

According to the board of health court complaint, an inspector last
July found that sewage had backed up in cesspools on the property, and
designated all three antiquated septic systems as failed. The board of
health promptly notified the property owners and the next month issued
an enforcement order requiring them to receive approval of a new system
by mid-December, to be installed by mid-April. Ms. Duarte signed the
enforcement agreement in early August.

The board of health allowed the bakery to open on a temporary basis
last summer by using a tight tank, which does not allow any wastewater
into the ground and must be pumped out periodically.

But last December, the day the new system was supposed to be
approved, Mr. Hoyle requested an extension, which the board granted
until the end of February. In March, with still no application for a new
system before them, the board sent a series of notices to the property
owners.

According to the board of health complaint, Mr. Hoyle in April asked
for more time to comply with the order, and stated that the owners
planned to sell the property. The property has not yet appeared on the
open market, and it is not known what price the owners are seeking. West
Tisbury assessors this year valued the property, which totals almost
eight acres, at roughly $1.1 million.

An attorney for the town on May 1 sent a letter to the owners
warning that litigation was imminent. It does not appear that he ever
received a response.

Town health agent John Powers said this week that the board rarely
has to resort to a lawsuit.

"When we do an enforcement order, we make it a mutual
agreement and negotiate the dates [for compliance]," Mr. Powers
said on Wednesday. "When most people enter into the agreement, the
abide by it. Very rarely do we have to do this."