Two Openings, a Production Facility and a Café, Mark the Bakery’s Arrival in Longmont
In the decade plus since Moxie Bread Co. opened its first location, the heirloom-grain bakery has grown into a handful of shops across Boulder County: a flagship in Louisville, a second location in North Boulder, and a third in Lyons. Longmont is Moxie’s newest home, with both a production facility and a café.
The café opened in December 2025 inside the beloved Cheese Importers (103 Main St.). The intimate space, complete with an outdoor patio, offers the same menu as Moxie’s other cafés, including sourdough breads, freshly made pastries, and coffee drinks. The space had sat empty since March 2020, when Cheese Importers’ own bistro closed during the pandemic.
“I love the style of the place. It’s just a great vibe,” says Moxie owner Pippa Clark. “I was just honored to be asked to be a part of it.”
The production facility, on the east side of town, opened nearly a year before the café, in January 2025. Since Moxie’s start in 2015, the company had done its baking in the back of its retail shops, and it had run out of room.
“We couldn’t make enough to serve the customers, so at some point I had to make the leap and make a bigger space,” Clark says.
Now about 20 chefs work in the 5,000-square-foot space, turning out roughly 400 loaves of bread a day, plus croissants, cookies, and prepared meals. Clark chose the facility partly for its location, which sits about the same distance from Louisville, North Boulder, and Lyons, allowing bread to be moved from oven to shelf in about 20 minutes.
Moxie first came to town in a public way at last summer’s farmers market. It was a chance “to get in front of a lot of Longmont people to introduce them to our products,” Clark says. With the café now open year-round, Moxie didn’t return to the market this year but plans to participate in at least one in the county next growing season.
What sets Moxie apart is the grain itself. The company mills its own organic heirloom varieties from farms in Colorado and across the Great Plains on a traditional stone mill, which Clark says preserves nutrients and produces a higher-quality flour. Moxie converted to 100% organic heirloom in its second year of operation and hasn’t gone back. Beyond its own bakeries, Moxie partners with local farms for CSA programs. Plus, it sells its flour to other restaurants and bakers and its grain berries to home cooks who want to mill their own.
Moxie was founded by Clark’s late husband, Andy, who died in 2022. Clark took over the business and has run it since, while raising the couple’s three boys, two of which now work at the bakery.
“Luckily, I had the support of a very good team,” Clark says. “I feel incredibly fortunate with the kindhearted people who work with Moxie. I do it because I’m passionate about food, and I like meeting people who are also passionate about food. I like building relationships within my community and hiring local people.”