More pancakes, a new brunch venue and a third York branch – Popular café set to expand

One of York’s favourite places for tasty treats has revealed some exciting plans.

Doe Bakehouse, which has two venues in the city, actually began life as clothing brand, with a small selection of donuts on the side. But when the donuts took off, owner Evie Jackson switched the emphasis and never looked back.

And now the business is entering a new chapter. Last month, the Layerthorpe shop and café held a Pancake Day special where you could get one pancake for £1 with a variety of different toppings available too.

Doe Bakehouse’s Chloe Lambie told YorkMix: “Pancake Day was crazy.

“I think it was because £1 pancakes are a lot more affordable than a lot of places – but there were only three of us just on pancake duty.”

With queues almost out of the door, people doing take-out orders for their workplaces and pre-orders by those worried they would sell out, they had to remake the batter six times.

It means the pancakes have now been made a permanent part of the menu.

“With the popularity we trialled them out three days last week and from now on were doing them every day,” Chloe said. “We are also trying out a breakfast sandwich range.”

The launch of the new breakfast sandwiches includes a variety of meat, vegetarian and vegan fillings. You can opt for a donut or a bread roll, then it is ‘build your own’.

New offer

Brunch is already popular in Doe Bakehouse’s Clitheroe café – and it’s coming to Layerthorpe in York soon, she said.

“We want to move over the brunch over here as well because it’s such a good spot and we’ve got so much space.

“So we’re looking for chefs at the moment to get that started as soon as possible.”

They also hope to put on more events in the future. The Layerthorpe cafe has already hosted pottery painting and occasional evening events, most recently a Valentine’s painting session.

“We are looking at doing more student nights, especially for students that aren’t drinking or don’t want to go out so they can come here do pottery or things like that instead,” said Chloe.

As well as the Layerthorpe café, Doe Bakehouse has a popular city centre venue on Church Street.

And a third city branch could follow. The Doe team is talking to the University of York about potentially opening a shop on their campus.

“They’ve spoken to us and said that we’re really popular with students and want to have a small shop,”  Chloe said.

On top of their conversations with the University of York, Chloe said they want to return to their roots and open a shop in Harrogate, where the business began, and potentially Leeds.