BreadHive recently announced that they will be expanding their bread business in Buffalo, New York, with a new retail bakery and sandwich shop to open in the spring of 2016. The shop will feature sandwiches, soups and pastry alongside their existing line of bread, bagels, pretzels and granola.

With the new space, customers will be able to sit down and enjoy a full meal and a coffee in an inviting cafe setting. Plus, there will be baked goods and premade sandwiches to go.

“We’re excited to open a place where people can walk inside and have a BreadHive experience,” said Valerie Rettberg-Smith, an owner of BreadHive who will be managing the cafe. “We have wanted to expand into prepared foods since the bakery first opened, and can’t wait to put our own spin on sandwiches and croissants.”

The bakery, which started operating in 2014, has been selling its products through stores like Farmers & Artisans in Snyder, the Lexington Co-op, and Guercio’s, as well as a takeout window. It also supplies baked goods like bread and pretzels to 15 restaurants presently, said Allison Ewing, one of its owners. The others are Emily Stewart, and Valerie Rettberg-Smith.

BreadHive currently offers bagels, coffee, bread, pretzels and granola from a takeout window at its 123 Baynes Street bakery. At the new store, BreadHive will expand its offerings, starting with a retail space customers can walk into, with 20 to 40.

BreadHive Worker Cooperative is a worker-owned bakery founded by three women and opened its doors in Buffalo on April 1, 2014. It is currently owned by three of its workers: Valerie Rettberg-Smith, Emily Stewart and Allison Ewing.

Its motto is “Good bread, good work” and its mission is to stimulate the cooperative economy in Buffalo by filling a niche for artisan bread and other baked goods in the city limits as a worker-owned, community funded business. In its current location, the bakery produces a line of signature long ferment wild leavened breads, distinctive hand-shaped bagels and soft sourdough pretzels, and granola made with local maple syrup.