It’s the end of an era for one Chapel Hill bakery, and the beginning of an era for another. 

On Instagram Monday, Brandwein’s Bagels owner Alex Brandwein announced that the business will be expanding its 505 W. Rosemary Street location in Chapel Hill into the space where Bread and Butter was formerly open. A small family-owned bakery, Bread and Butter, closed its doors this spring due to the COVID-19 shutdown.

Alex Brandwein, a graduate of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, held his first bagel pop-up in August 2019 and signed a lease for his W. Rosemary Street storefront in early 2020. Then came COVID-19. Managing a new business in the midst of a pandemic wasn’t easy; still, the shop—with its traditional boiled and baked New York-style bagels and accompanying spreads and salads—has managed to become a popular breakfast spot in Chapel Hill. 

Baker-owner George Chen opened Bread and Butter in 2011 alongside his parents, Joyce and James Chen, who had formerly run the Chinese eatery Oriental Garden out of the same space since 1989. Over the phone, Chen’s mother, Joyce Chen, told the INDY that the family has always tried to keep a “very low-profile” but want the Chapel Hill community to know they have loved running the bakery. 

“We will miss to everybody,” says Chen, 69. “Everybody who came in was a friend. We miss everybody, but I guess since this happened, what can we do? The pandemic is not over yet. Everybody be safe out there.” 

Joyce Chen says that Brandwein is a “neighbor” and that once the family decided to close the space in December, they began to have discussions about next steps with him. A mutual love of Chapel Hill (and carbohydrates) led them to turn the space over to Brandwein, who says that, alongside outpourings of community mourning for Bread and Butter, he has gotten positive feedback and support from locals about the next chapter of the bagel shop. 

“I for one was also saddened to hear that they were closing,” Brandwein says of Bread and Butter. “They were excited, though, to have us come in because we both had mutual appreciation for the town. They wanted to make sure the building was going to be used in a good way to support the community.”

The expansion of the business into the space, according to Brandwein, will include a new parking lot, expanded seating, greater space for production, expanded menu options, and the possibility of catering and delivery. A defined timeline for the expansion has not yet been set. 

“The mission of the shop has always been to just make your day a little bit better with a bagel or a cup of coffee or just a friendly face,” Brandwein told INDY.  “Hopefully the space just gives us the opportunity to do that in a better way.”

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