Chris Herrin Clarifies Facebook Post About Future Of Bread & Butter
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“It ain’t like were gonna go anywhere anytime soon. We’re paying all the bills, and I’m living in a house – so that’s good.”
That’s what Chris Herrin told me about Bread & Butter – his popular bakery/sandwich shop in Henderson. So why did Herrin post the following on his restaurant’s website?
“Breaking News for all in the Food Community at some point in 2013 we will be closing Bread and Butter as its current format! What I can say is we will take it one day at a time and enjoy every moment possible, and make the best possible food we can, up until the day we re-format.”
Herrin tells me the restaurant has just become too small for their operation. He says their tiny converted kitchen isn’t big enough for the number of people he has working on busy weekends – a fact that has led to some accidents in recent weeks. To remedy that fact, he’s toying with several ideas, including re-purposing the restaurant as a 100% bakery or finding a larger space. But he says his main goal was to make it through the holiday rush – and now that he’s done that he wants to take some time to relax and think about possible remedies.
In the meantime, he says the newly opened Meat & 3 hasn’t been busy enough to justify the added work it involves. So he’s toying with the idea of scaling down its normal operation to three days a week, and inviting in guest chefs to do pop-ups and other special events. But he insists it’s the commitment of time, not making the rent, that has him re-thinking this space.
Obviously, I have no way of knowing what’s really going on at either restaurant. But since Herrin is the guy who made the first announcement (which got certain other food writers predicting his imminent demise) I’m inclined to accept his explanation unless I’m confronted with facts from another reliable source.