Blue Duck Bakery Closes Its Doors in Riverhead After Seven Years

Downtown Riverhead lost a little of its sweetness this week as Blue Duck Bakery‘s westernmost location closes its doors for the final time today, Monday, June 24. In a press release, Nancy Kouris, who owns the bakery with her husband Keith, said, “It is with great sadness that we must close our Riverhead location after seven years. We had great hope that we could be part of Riverhead’s revival.” She noted that between the search for quality personnel and disruptive construction nearby, “the obstacles became too great for us to continue.”

Opened with high hopes in November of 2012, Blue Duck’s Riverhead location occupied a former auto parts store at 309 East Main Street. The beautiful shop featured Art Deco style that matched well with the feeling of old Downtown Riverhead.

Blue Duck Bakery opened its original location in Southampton 20 years ago and gained a loyal following across the East End for their preservative-free artisan breads and other goodies, which garnered high praise from customers. After many years of success in Southampton, however, their building came under new ownership and they were forced to vacate the 30 Hampton Road location after 19 years of operating there.

The family owned and operated bakery continued to provide a delicious selection of baked goods, sandwiches and quiche to the East End out of their Riverhead, Southold and Greenport cafe (opened in 2013) locations, but the Riverhead closing this week leaves only the remaining two North Fork locations. The Southold cafe, which continues to operate at 56275 Main Road (NY-25), has also allowed the couple to expand into the wholesale market as a supplier of bread and pastries to several restaurants on the East End and beyond.

Keith Couris is a graduate of  the French Culinary Institute’s International Bread Baking Program with more than 30 years of experience, while Nancy serves as president, ensuring each morsel is up their high standards. The couple describes their bakery as “traditional and reminiscent of a time when village bakeries existed on Main Street in every town on Long Island.”

While Riverhead residents are sure to miss their retail and cafe location, they can still get their hands on Blue Duck favorites by heading to Southold, or the Greenport shop at 130 Front Street. Blue Duck Bakery is also a regular vendor at the Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Shelter Island, Greenport and Westhampton farmers markets.