News / Cafes
Popular bakery and cafe to close newest site
One of the sites of a popular Bristol cafe is due to close only three months after opening, following the cafe’s decision to “diversify the business”.
The residency for Catley’s at Crisp in Old Market will end on November 30, with most of the cafe’s other branches soon opening only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
In a post on Instagram, owner Hannah Catley said that the weekday trade had been “pretty diabolical” and increasing costs made the feasibility of its continuation uncertain.
Catley’s opened their third site within Crisp in Old Market in August
The new opening hours will be implemented from Monday across Catley’s cafes in Clifton, St Anne’s and Old Market, and their sister venture Lockdown Loaves in Winterbourne.
Hannah said: “This year has been monumental for both myself and the business and I am forever grateful for all the amazing opportunities we are blessed with, but I’d be lying if I said that the constant grind isn’t starting to take a toll on me.
“Most of you know I don’t tend to do things by halves and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to have the best of both worlds, where we can continue to build the business and give you all what you want and at the same time be able to say yes to the events, teach classes, develop new and exciting bakes and not burn myself out.
‘Weekday trade has been pretty diabolical across the board, and with the constant increase in costs, I’m not sure how much longer it would have been feasible.
“And so we have decided to diversify the business, opening Friday, Saturday and Sunday only to give us the rest of the week to focus on all of the above.”
Catley’s opened a headquarters site in St Anne’s in March
Catley’s first opened in Clifton in 2023 after the success of Lockdown Loaves, Hannah’s first bakery business born during the pandemic.
In March, the bakery and cafe opened a second headquarters site in St Anne’s.
This was followed by the opening of the Old Market site in August, which is now due to close at the end of November.
Hannah added: “We’ve tried our best to do what is in our opinion in everyone’s best interests, particularly all of you who have been supporting us since day one, and so I really hope you can all understand and be on board with these changes.
“I appreciate each every one of you.”
All photos: Martin Booth
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