Asheville bakery closes downtown store, cites declining tourism
ASHEVILLE - A local bakery has closed its downtown store, leaving a sole staple location for customers to buy its artisan bread directly from the makers.
On Aug. 12, City Bakery permanently closed its café at 60 Biltmore Ave., one of the business’s two brick-and-mortar stores that opened in 2004.
General manager Brian Dennehy said the decision came after long deliberations about the bakery’s future and the current state of downtown.
He attributes multiple factors that led to the choice not to renew the business’s lease that’s ending Aug. 31. The leading reasons are decreased tourist traffic and higher rental costs in the central business district. Also, maintenance on the spacious café, listed as more than 3,200 square feet, has been costly and has only become more expensive, he said.
“It’s a big space and we want to kind of simplify things a little bit at this point,” Dennehy said. “It’s no secret that downtown is a little slower these days so we’re just looking at it as an opportunity to streamline and go down to one café for the time being and focus on our operations in our production bakery, too.”
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In 1999, Dennehy’s family opened City Bakery’s original café at 88 Charlotte St. in North Asheville, which remains open, and the business has a production facility in Fletcher.
City Bakery produces handmade artisan bread, bagels and pastries using local and regional ingredients, baked fresh, daily.
The products are sold at the café and wholesale and available at restaurants and markets across the Asheville area, including Ingles and Whole Foods Market.
Downtown business decline post-COVID
The COVID-19 pandemic made a great impact on downtown business, and three years later, sales had not rebounded, and it’s been “one hurdle after another,” Dennehy said.
“Most of us were cautiously optimistic that this summer would maybe show us some signs of pre-pandemic levels of business and we never got to that point,” he said.
This summer, sales were up and down, he said, but with the high rent and additional overhead costs, it was too much of a financial load for the business to carry.
About six weeks ago, Dennehy said the staff of about 15 employees was notified and given the option to transfer to the Charlotte Street café. Some took up the offer while some others found new employment. Many were college students who’d planned to work for the season before returning to school for the fall semester, he said.
“We’re focusing on readjusting our operations and getting resettled after we make this big change,” he said. “We’ll probably, hopefully, see some of our regulars over there so they may see a little bump in traffic.”
For now, the Charlotte Street café will operate as normal with the hours 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Hours may be extended in the future.
City Bakery on Charlotte Street is less than half the size of the downtown storefront. The North Asheville café shares a center dining room with neighboring business, Bone and Broth. The café occupies it by day and the restaurant by night.
Currently, City Bakery’s menu features its bestselling avocado toast, breakfast sandwiches, and a wide assortment of bread with sourdough leading as the bestseller.
Bagels are available in plain, everything and sesame flavors with a rotating specialty bagel occasionally thrown in the mix. The cheddar-pepper bagel will be released soon.
The bakery's menu will be updated in the upcoming weeks with fall flavors and favorites.
City Bakery may expand with new locations again, though nothing is planned now, Dennehy said. It’s not out of the question that City Bakery could return downtown, but it would be in a different format than before.
“You never know because the one thing about Asheville is it’s constantly changing and evolving,” he said.
Dennehy said his family has been in the business long enough to seek and recognize and take on new opportunities when they present themselves when the time is right, but not be afraid to pivot when it’s time to go in a new direction.
“It’s definitely bittersweet. We’ve had so many great relationships with people, great regulars ― we see them often. We’ve seen kids grow up coming in here,” Dennehy said.
For more, visit citybakery.net and follow on Instagram and Facebook.
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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: City Bakery closes downtown store citing drop in tourism
