Post-Yomtov shoppers in Golders Green were stunned to find one of its best-known kosher stores shut on Monday.

Signs posted in the window of bakers M & D Grodzinski simply informed the public: “This shop is now closed due to end of lease.”

A kosher supervisor from the London Beth Din had turned up for work on Monday unaware that the bakery had shut.

For a number of years, the shop has not been owned by a member of the Grodzinski family, a household name in the kosher food business in Britain. Its sole listed director Shelley Bauernfreund was not reachable this week.

The original Grodzinski’s bakery in the East End of London was founded more than a century ago by Harris and Judith Grodzinski, who came over from Lithuania in 1888.

The JC understands that the only Grodzinski shop in the UK currently in the family’s hands is the Edgware bakery, which is owned by a great-grandson of the founders, Johnny Grodzinski, and which was renamed Grodz earlier this year. A relative owns Grodzinski’s bakery in Toronto.

Earlier this year, Barnet Council approved applications for a first-floor side extension to the Golders Green premises and for a new shopfront and signage.

The application for the side extension listed as the client a company called Psalm127, whose sole director is Benjamin Gabay.