LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Magee's Bakery, a Lexington institution since 1956, is expected to reopen this fall after closing more than three years ago.
Owner Greg Higgins said the bakery will return to its original 726 East Main Street location, with a target reopening date in October.
Magee's first opened on Main Street in 1956 and has roots in Maysville. Higgins' family took over the business in the 1960s. The bakery closed in 2023 after 67 years, following a period of challenges.
"We didn't really have a strong business background, and so we didn't really pour over the numbers," Higgins said.
Higgins said he has spent the majority of the past three years developing a new business model with the help of a professor at the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business.
"I'm like, there's a lot of cool stuff that I could do that I didn't realize that we could have done before," said Higgins.
Classic menu items — including donuts, cakes, cookies, and pies — will return, but when they are available will look different. Higgins said the bakery will reopen with a pop-up or drop menu format.
"I want to do it fresh, so when I say I wanna do mallow squares, I'm going to make up as many mallow squares as I used to make up in a month back in the day, but I'm going to sell them in a one or two day span, tell people they're available, and sell them based on the demand from what was produced," Higgins said.
Higgins said the joy of baking has never left him after more than 30 years in the business.
"I love this. I love making things that I see and have tried out, you know, 'What do you think?' and that's just the joy of baking. That's the fun part," Higgins said.
"It's hard to get that out of your system if you've done this for 30 something years."
For Higgins, the reopening carries deep personal meaning.
"It meant a lot for me to kind of save my parents, and now I get to come back in here and save this legacy. I look at this as a legacy business in Lexington and kind of put it back together and move it into the 21st century, so it can be functional from a business model standpoint," he said.
Higgins hopes to celebrate the bakery's 70th anniversary this fall.
