RICHMOND, Va. — Customers were stunned to learn that Sub Rosa, the acclaimed bakery in Richmond's Church Hill, will be shuttered for the "foreseeable future" after a fire Sunday morning.
Capt. Trae Kenney with Richmond Fire said when crews arrived at the bakery in the 600 block of 20 N 25th Street around 6:45 a.m. they saw heavy fire and smoke coming from the building's roof.
WATCH: Firefighter gives update on fire at Sub Rosa Bakery
"Crews quickly stretched lines and got a quick knockdown on the fire," Kenney said.
There was "pretty significant damage" to the first-floor bakery as well as the building's second-floor apartments, according to Kenney.
The people who live in the apartments and "a worker or two" inside the bakery "all made it out safe," Kenney said.
No injuries were reported and there has been no word yet on how the fire started.
Leslie Marshall was taken aback when she saw the damage.
"We came through and I'm like, 'What's all this?' And I thought it was some other building because it couldn't be Sub Rosa," she said.
Marshall said the news left her "just kind of heartbroken" because the bakery is a neighborhood and community mainstay.
"And they donate to the community," she pointed out. "There's always some bread that you can buy that they donate to the community."
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"We will be closed today and for the foreseeable future," officials with Sub Rosa wrote in a social media post. "We don’t know the extent of the damage and will keep you all informed as we find out more. Everyone is safe."
Brother and sister bakers Evrim and Evin Dogu opened Sub Rosa in 2012.
Five years after opening, Evrim and Evin were named James Beard Award Semi-Finalists outstanding bakers in the country. A feat the duo repeated in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
The business uses flour made in-house and bakes its breads and pastries in wood-fired ovens.
"We load each bread by hand into a wood-fired oven. And the wood-fired oven is the whole thing." Evrim told Scott Wise and Robey Martin on the Eat It, Virginia podcast in October 2021. "It has fire in it from around 3 p.m. till 10 p.m. So it's just fire inside of the oven."
This is not the first fire time a fire has closed the bakery. A blaze in April 2013 displaced the startup just months after its launch.
It cost nearly half a million dollars to bring the 1,440-square-foot bakery and the building it sits in back to life, Evrim said in a 2014 interview.
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Though the bakery will stay closed as the owners assess the damage, customers said they will do what they can to make sure they open again.
"It's a great community that kind of gathers together,” Marshall said. “And especially a place like this, there will be something, some kind of public support system. And of course, I will happily donate, and I will be far from the only one."
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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