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One bakery cafe in Northport has announced it will close at the end of the summer while another opened its doors for the first time on Wednesday.
The Scone Goddess, which sells scones and coffee from its bakery on Route 1, is selling its building and plans to close the Northport space at the end of the summer and relocate its operations to its manufacturing facility in Belfast, which opened this spring.
The turnkey bakery, built in 2021 and subsequently expanded, is priced at $749,000, according to a real estate listing.
“I am sad to close the shop in Northport as the town is my home and embraced us, supported us and cheered us for the last seven years,” said Vee Stubbs, the company’s owner. “If I could have expanded by building there and stayed, I would have.”
The company got its start selling freshly-baked scones and mixes at the United Farmers’ Market in Belfast. During the pandemic, its mix sales took off and the company opened a food truck and then the bakery Northport, which it outgrew.
The 2,000-square-foot Belfast space is a production facility for the company’s scone mixes. Freshly baked scones will be sold there by pre-order only; there will be no walk-in scone sales, though mixes will be available to purchase.
Eventually, customers will be able to visit and see the factory in motion and create their own scone mixes there seasonally, she said. The company also recently bought a van that will allow it to sell at festivals and also intends to expand the number of co-ops, specialty food stores, and gourmet grocers it sells to.
Closing the Northport location will streamline the company’s costs and keep the product made in Maine while supporting work-life balance as her children, who help run the company, start their own families, Stubbs said.
Meanwhile, Lone Star Latte, a tiny new bakery and coffee shop on Northport’s Shore Road is now serving up coffee, lemonade and baked goods from a converted shed.
TexCzech kolaches are the house specialty — the pastries are yeasted dough wrapped around savory fillings such as sausage, ham and cheese, and, more traditionally, fruits and poppy seeds.
The shop was started by the Jordy family, who live most of the year North of Houston and bought a house in Northport a few years ago.
Jessy Jordy, a rising high school sophomore, runs the shop and is responsible for the bright floral mural that adorns one exterior wall. Her parents, Angela and Jeff, built it with the idea of creating a summer job for her and as a way to meet the community.
“I said, ‘I’ll pay for everything to set it up for you,’” Jeff said. “And whatever you make goes to your first car.”
By 10 a.m. on Thursday, the shop’s second day of business, it had served about 30 people, many of them out for a walk on Shore Road.
The family has a home on the property and a rental unit and eventually hopes to add another rental and run a bed and breakfast on the property.
When Jessy goes to college in a few years, her parents hope to move full-time to Northport. For now they are here for the month of July and plan to open the cafe, located at 473 Shore Road, from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. most mornings.