Rise bakery in Barnard Castle closes cafΓ© for foreseeable future
Husband and wife team Alex and Cat Lister have been running the Rise Artisan Bakery in Barnard Castle for the last five years, after starting their first bakery business in Crook in 2013.
But in a post on social media the much-loved venue announced the cafe would be closed for the foreseeable, saying: βDue to unforeseen circumstances out of our control, our cafe is now closed until further notice.
βWe are still serving hot food, soup and drinks for takeaway.β
The owners said they did not wish to disclose the reason for the closure when contacted by the Echo, and could not confirm when it will reopen.
The bakery made the top ten in The Northern Echo’s Best Bakery competition last September.
Speaking when they were nominated, Alex, 44, from Hamsterley, told how he met Cat, 34, from Hurworth, at what was the Clervaux Bakery in Darlington in 2012.
He said: “We set up our first bakery together in Crook in 2013 and did a lot of the Northern Dales Farmers Markets and wholesale work.
“It is a tough business to be in, as you need to be up baking through the night, but we did well and grew to take on a larger unit, and started supplying to restaurants and shops around the North East.β
Following the pandemic, the couple bought the cafΓ© and have been running it ever since.
Alex said: βWhen Covid hit, we lost so many of our customers. Many of them went under and literally weren’t there anymore.
“We were still baking at home in Hamsterley and we sold bread with people queueing around a car park. It was a very strange time.
“Then the unit came up in Barnard Castle the following year and opened the bakery and coffee shop.”