Grand Central Bakery Shutters Sawtooth Cafe Two Months Early

Earlier this month, Grand Central Baking announced it would be closing its Sawtooth cafe at 2240 NW York in order to use the space to expand its production facility. The family-owned company's bread sales were booming and they needed more room.

The closing date was set at March 31, in order to give employees time to find new jobs. But the cafe's manager had just transferred to a different GCB cafe, and it didn't make sense to hire a new manager for just three months. With the staffing shortage, scheduling got hairy, so they decided to pull the plug two months earlier than planned. As of yesterday, the Sawtooth cafe is officially closed.

The company issued this statement on its website:

"With turnover in other key positions, we have found ourselves having trouble scheduling staff for the demands at the Sawtooth café and have had to close early several times due to staffing shortages. These staffing challenges make it difficult for Grand Central to fulfill our promise to provide great customer service and high-quality products.

We therefore have made the difficult decision to close the Sawtooth café as of today, Thursday, Jan. 22.  We thank our Sawtooth café employees and celebrate the years of service from this dedicated staff, all of whom received severance pay through the end of February."

Grand Central has six other Portland-area cafés, including a brand-new location in Woodstock, and has plans to open more in the future.