On December 18th, Hungry Heart Bakery served its last meal from the 7940 SE Stark Street location and will return to its former space a block away at 414 SE 80th Avenue. Since April 2022, the Rabbit Hole Market and Sweets shop has operated from the SE 80th location. Jax Hart owns both businesses, and the two locations worked together to meet the varied appetites of customers throughout the day. This weekend, December 30th and 31st, the restaurant’s owner will sell surplus supplies as they consolidate operations into the smaller space.
Hungry Heart Bakery opened in Montavilla on January 3rd, 2015, after five years of running the successful Hungry Heart cupcakes food cart. From 2017 to 2019, Hungry Heart opened a sister business, Heartbreaker, a block over at 411 SE 81st Avenue. They closed that business with plans to open a new restaurant on SE Stark Street called White Rabbit Cafe and Bakery in the spring of 2020. The pandemic set White Rabbit’s launch back, with the SE Stark location opening in early 2021 under the Hungry Heart name. As restrictions lifted on indoor dining, Hart expanded the menu and embraced the original brunch menu planned for White Rabbit. The restaurant began a transition to the intended name, adopting both logos. However, they never completed that transition, and a change of business operations was needed.
In December, Jax Hart publicly announced that the company would relocate to the original space. “The decision to downsize has not been easy, but gives us the opportunity to slow down and return to our roots,” reads a notice on the Hungry Heart website. Consolidating the two locations requires selling some of the surplus restaurant supplies. The staff invites people to buy items at the weekend sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on December 30th and 31st inside the closed location at 7940 SE Stark Street. They intend to reopen the consolidated shop at 414 SE 80th Avenue on January 5th, 2024. Watch the Hungry Heart Instagram account for updates.
