Lost Bread Co. closes its Center City shop as partners plan to split

Lost Bread Co.’s year-old retail store on Walnut Street near 23rd in Center City closed abruptly last weekend amid a pending separation between the baker/operator, Alex Bois, and Avram Hornik, who owns the space.

In the spring, Bois said, Lost will resume baking at its previous home of 1313 N. Howard St. in Kensington, and would add a cafe, both under his direction. Since 2017, Lost has operated under the aegis of Hornik’s company, Four Corners Management.

Bois said he was buying out Hornik after “not seeing eye to eye on a number of things.”

In the interim, Lost will continue to bake for its retail customers and farmers markets from its home inside Hornik’s Craft Hall complex at 901 N. Delaware Ave. in Fishtown. The wholesale operation is ending.

Sunday bread pop-ups will continue at Howard Street, whose space will be outfitted with new baking equipment and the cafe, Bois said. The farmers market schedule includes the Tuesday stop at Rittenhouse Square, about four blocks from the shuttered Lost Bread at 2218 Walnut St.

» READ MORE: Alex Bois: From scientist to baker

A new bakery may be on the way for the space. Hornik said he was developing a concept and partnership.

The news of the closing was an apparent shock to the seven employees Monday, most of whom learned of it from one another. Employees have been offered positions for similar pay at other Four Corners restaurants, Hornik said.

The satellite Lost Bread site previously was Res Ipsa Cafe, whose chef Michael Vincent Ferreri decamped to the well-regarded Irwin’s at the Bok Building in South Philadelphia.

Bois, 35, was nominated twice for a James Beard Award while working for Ellen Yin and Eli Kulp at High Street Hospitality Group (Fork, a.kitchen, the former High Street on Market). He left in 2016.