Changes are coming to the Burlington outpost of Haymaker Bun. After service on October 17, the bakery and café in the Soda Plant will cease retail operations and become a production bakery for the business’ frozen four-packs of buns, which are now able to be shipped across the U.S. through a collaboration with Ferrisburgh’s Dakin Farm.
The original Haymaker location on Bakery Lane in Middlebury will continue to serve the public as usual, offering daily breakfast and lunch, owner Caroline Corrente told Seven Days on Tuesday.
“It’s a mix of feelings,” Corrente said. “Where we want to grow right now is in our wholesale business, and we can’t do it all at once — we need to set our sights on one goal.”
A selection of fresh buns and other Haymaker pastries will still be available in the Soda Plant, at Brio Coffeeworks‘ café across the hall. But Haymaker’s existing space — which also served breakfast sandwiches, coffee and lunch items — will no longer be open to the public.
Clover Café on Shelburne Road in South Burlington and both locations of City Market in Burlington also carry fresh buns, with cafés and retailers in Chittenden County to be added soon.
Demand for Haymaker’s frozen packs of original brioche sticky buns (“the O.G.”) has increased to “pallets instead of cases,” as the brand has found regional distribution throughout New England and New York, Corrente said.
The boxes are currently distributed to more than 50 stores by Vermont’s Myers Produce, Farm Connex and Wilcox’s Premium Ice Cream; they’ll soon be carried by Marty’s Local in South Deerfield, Mass., too.
The Burlington bakery, which opened in July 2024, is “an excellent production space,” Corrente said, but doing both wholesale production and running the café “started to be at odds.” Staff from the Burlington location were all offered jobs in Middlebury, and several will make the move.
“It was a challenging, long decision to make, but we really feel it’s going to be what’s best for Haymaker in the long run,” Corrente said. “And we’ll still be in here making the buns.”
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