Blue Duck Bakery Cafe To Close In Riverhead

RIVERHEAD, NY — The popular Blue Duck Café is set to close its Riverhead location, owners said Wednesday.

The business will close on June 24, Nancy and Keith Kouris announced. Locations in Southold and Greenport will remain open; the iconic Southampton location closed last year.

“It is with great sadness that we must close our Riverhead location after seven years. We had great hope that we could be part of Riverhead’s revival,” said Nancy Kouris, part owner with her husband Keith. “The obstacles became too great for us to continue.”

The past year became even more challenging, she added, "as construction of Riverhead Lofts disrupted the area, finding sustainable help became more difficult, and local opinion on parking and safety drew many people away from downtown."

The Blue Duck Bakery was home to Poetry Street, a local collaboration of poets and artists of the spoken word; Poetry Street will celebrate their fifth anniversary on Sunday, June 23, at 2 p.m. with a last gathering at the Riverhead bakery.

Any previous cake orders will be honored and can be picked up at the Riverhead location.

The Kouris’ said they wanted to thank their loyal customers and supporters and said they are optimistic that other businesses in downtown will flourish and grow with future revitalization.

Looking ahead, the Kouris’ will direct their time to their wholesale business as well as to maintaining the remaining two locations in Southold and Greenport. Their artisan breads and baked products can be found at local restaurants, grocers and farmers' markets, they said.

The Blue Duck Bakery Café first opened on Columbus Day weekend in 1999 in Southampton. The Kouris’ were one of the first to introduce European style artisan breads to the East End.

"It was a tough sell at first but eventually the crusty, chewy, preservative free bread caught on," they said.

A new wholesale business ultimately emerged and in 2008, after growing out of the Southampton location, they moved the bread production to Southold where it is made today, the Kouris' said.

It was a sad day for many in September, 2018, after 19 sweet years, when Nancy and Keith Kouris said they were saddened to announce the closing of their well-loved Southampton location.

The building, located at at 30 Hampton Road, had a new owner who had different plans for the site, a release from Blue Duck Bakery Cafe said.