MOORHEAD -- The Black Cat bakery will briefly put its store on "paws" Dec. 23 so it can relocate to a new central Moorhead site in January.
Morgan Laite said she and co-owner Maggie Thoemke are moving to a yet-to-be-disclosed location because rent had become too expensive in their current space on the north end of 1500 11th St. N.
In their stead, VIP Catering will occupy the Black Cat's former space as of Feb. 1, said Nicholas Aadland, who owns the building.
"It wasn't like me kicking them out," said Aadland. "They only wanted to go with a one-year lease and the lease was up. It was kind of a verbal thing (that) I would give them an under-market deal on the lease, as a fellow entrepreneur, to help get them going. I was trying to do them a solid."
After Aadland had made the lease arrangement with Black Cat, he said Anthony Bachman, owner of VIP Catering, approached him about leasing the bakery space. Bachman continued to express interest in the space throughout the year, so Aadland said, "I reached out to them and asked what he thought it was worth."
Aadland said he did give the Black Cat a chance to match VIP's number, but it was considerably more than their first-year rent.
"We decided staying in this space and paying over double would probably kill us in the end, so we decided to move," Laite said.
The bakery owners aren't ready to share their new location yet until they've worked out the final details. But Laite said the new spot already has a decent commercial kitchen, so -- if all goes smoothly -- they could open their doors by mid-January.
Aadland and his brother, Riley, purchased the building at 1500 11th St. N., in 2021 to launch the Brothers' Table, a local foods market/take-and-bake meal place/event venue/catering concern . After that business closed in 2023, Aadland leased the south end of the building to be used as the Classic Touch Lounge and continued using the commercial kitchen in the north end for a catering business for childcare centers.
Thoemke, who previously ran Love and Imperfections, a cottage-baking business out of home, had long dreamed of opening her own storefront. When she and Laite learned Aadland planned to discontinue catering and instead lease the north end full-time, it seemed like the ideal space and location for their purposes.
Especially in the Black Cat's first months of operation, customers often queued up in long lines to buy the bakery's from-scratch breads, pies, cakes, scones, cookies, muffins and rolls.
The pace slowed down last summer, Laite said, especially due to factors like the construction of the 11th Street underpass project. But in the end, the rent hike was the deciding factor.
Once they are in their new location, which Laite said they'd reveal soon, Black Cat customers can expect an expanded menu, including breakfast and lunch sandwiches, soups and some coffee drinks.
And although the bakery will leave its original location, its north Moorhead neighbors won't have to drive very far for their scones and Cafe Americanos. When the partners had first talked about moving, friends and business contacts urged them to move to Fargo.
No way, both responded. "We're happy here and we'll stay here," Laite said.