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Bae's Baekery leaves Frankfort Ave shop, signals Bardstown Road move

Bae's Baekery leaves Frankfort Ave shop, signals Bardstown Road move

Money Moves Louisville, KY local

The Clifton bakery operated at 1804 Frankfort Ave since May 2023; signs for a new Highlands location appeared in April.

Yesterday: License gone from four straight readings

Overview

Updated 1 hour ago

Bae's Baekery, the Louisville shop known for jumbo stuffed cookies and custom cakes, has disappeared from the city's active food establishment license list. Its license for 1804 Frankfort Ave was last listed on Aug. 30, and it has been absent from four straight readings since.

A lapsed license can mean many things short of closure, and this one carries a wrinkle. In April, signs appeared on the former Oddbird Bakery space at 1021 Bardstown Road, suggesting founders Abigail Mattingly and Griffin McGreevy planned a move to the Highlands rather than a shutdown.

Why it matters

If Bae's Baekery doesn't reopen elsewhere, Louisville loses a beloved local bakery that built its reputation one custom cake and stuffed cookie at a time.

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Key Indicators

4
Consecutive missing license readings
Bae's Baekery has been absent from the active license list for four straight readings as of Sept. 3.
40
Months operating at 1804 Frankfort Ave
The license was issued May 17, 2023, roughly 40 months before it lapsed.

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People Involved

Organizations Involved

Timeline

January 2019 September 2026

5 events Latest: Yesterday
Tap a bar to jump to that date
  1. License gone from four straight readings

    Latest Licensing

    The Frankfort Ave address is absent from four consecutive active license lists.

  2. Last license list appearance

    Licensing

    Bae's Baekery appears on the active license list for the final time.

  3. Signs point to Bardstown Road move

    Report

    Courier Journal reports signs for Bae's at the former Oddbird Bakery space.

  4. Opens Frankfort Ave storefront

    Expansion

    The bakery moves to 1804 Frankfort Ave in Clifton after stops at Chef Space and Old Louisville.

  5. Bae's Baekery founded

    Founding

    Abigail Mattingly starts baking and selling from her apartment.

Historical Context

2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

January 2019 - May 2023

Bae's own expansion path (2019-2023)

Bae's grew from an apartment kitchen to Chef Space, then to an Old Louisville storefront at 1164 S. Brook St, then to the larger Clifton location at 1804 Frankfort Ave.

Then

Each move let the bakery handle more orders and hire more staff.

Now

Relocation is the established pattern whenever the business outgrows a space.

Why this matters now

A move to Bardstown Road would fit that history, making the license lapse look more like a relocation than a closure.

November 2024 - April 2025

Oddbird Bakery at 1021 Bardstown Road (2024-2025)

Quills Coffee launched Oddbird Bakery at 1021 Bardstown Road in November 2024. It closed about six months later, leaving the Highlands space vacant since April 2025.

Then

The address sat empty for months while Quills Coffee absorbed the closure.

Now

The space's short tenure as a bakery shows how hard that specific storefront is to sustain.

Why this matters now

It's the exact address Bae's may move into, and it recently failed a bakery tenant.

Sources

(5)