SEATTLE — The founder of Macrina Bakery is stepping away from the company.
Leslie Mackie announced Tuesday that she is moving on to what she calls her next third chapter.
“The first chapter was realizing my dream of opening Macrina and growing it with the remarkably talented people it drew,” Mackie said. “The second was bringing in partners and working alongside them for nearly two decades, a wonderful partnership. Now it’s time for me to do my own thing again.”
Mackie said she has been weighing the move for some time.
“For one reason or another, it was never quite the right moment,” she said. “Now the stars have aligned. Macrina has a strong foundation of leadership. Our bakers and pastry chefs are doing their best work with innovation and consistency, and with their experience the bakery is only going to move forward.”
What’s next for Mackie?
Mackie’s next step is Project Barnstorm. It began in 2020 as her line of small-batch conserves, many made with fruit from her farm on Vashon Island. She plans to add baking classes, team-building sessions, and custom events for small groups.
“It’s a passion project,” she said. “It’s never going to be a big business.”
What’s next for Macrina?
The bakery will carry on under Scott France, president and part-owner of Macrina, and his partners.
Head baker Phuong Bui, whom Mackie hired as a dishwasher in 1994, will still lead the bread team.
“Leslie has been the heart and soul of Macrina, enriching our communities,” France shared. “What she built isn’t going anywhere. Ownership is the same as it has been for nearly twenty years, and her high standards are already in the bakers she trained. Our job is to keep them there. Leslie is an inspiration and I’m fortunate to have worked alongside her all these years.”
About Mackie & Macrina
Mackie opened Macrina Bakery in 1993 and helped bring European-style artisan bread to Seattle. The storefront on First Avenue in Belltown had six employees and a cooling rack that held a dozen kinds of bread.
Mackie trained at the California Culinary Academy, cooked under Lydia Shire in Boston, studied bread in Italy and France, and served as head baker at Seattle’s Grand Central Bakery. Casera, the first loaf she created for Macrina, took nearly a year of experimenting. It is still the house bread.
Julia Child featured Mackie on Baking with Julia, and the James Beard Foundation nominated her for Outstanding Pastry Chef four years in a row. She has written three Macrina cookbooks, with a fourth on the way. Bon Appétit and Food & Wine have named Macrina among the best bakeries in America.
That one storefront has grown into seven cafés and a bakery in Kent, with about 300 employees and more than 1,000 wholesale customers across the Puget Sound region.
Macrina’s cafés are in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, Belltown, SoDo, and Maple Leaf neighborhoods, with others in Kent and on Mercer Island. Macrina’s breads and pastries are also widely available in grocery stores throughout the greater Seattle area, including at PCC, Whole Foods, QFC, Metropolitan Market, and Town & Country.
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