Nancy Kouris, founder of Blue Duck Bakery, is being honored by the East End Women’s Network with its Woman of the Year award.
Since she and her husband, Keith, opened their bakery in Southampton 19 years ago, it has expanded to three additional locations, in Greenport, Southold and Riverhead. She now serves as president of the company; Kouris is the master baker. READ
Hi, my name is Elizabeth Basile. I work at the Blue Duck Bakery as an assistant baker. I’ve been here for eight years. READ
Northforker.com presents our latest “Experience North Fork” Giveaway.
Are you recently engaged or planning a special event? Celebrate with a Blue Duck Bakery custom cake!
The East End baker is giving away a $150 gift certificate toward the cost of a specialty, custom cake.
This giveaway is valued at $150.
Enter below.
Susan Dingle remembers the exact moment she decided she needed to change the path she was on.
It was 1981 and she was pursuing a screenwriting career in Hollywood. READ
Do you enjoy creating poems and want to share them with others?
Then head down to Blue Duck Bakery Café in Riverhead this Sunday, June 26, to celebrate Poetry Street’s second anniversary from 2 to 4 p.m.
The recipients of the 2014 Riverhead Chamber of Commerce awards. (Credit: Joseph Pinciaro)
The Riverhead Chamber of Commerce held its annual award dinner Thursday evening at the East Wind in Wading River.
Read what each of the recipients had to say by clicking on the page links below.
RACHEL YOUNG FILE PHOTO | Nancy and Keith Kouris at their Blue Duck location in Riverhead.
Blue Duck Bakery Café will recognize the official launch of its fourth location in Greenport with a three-day grand opening celebration this week.
The eatery quietly opened its doors on Front Street about three weeks ago.
“We’re really excited to be in Greenport,” said Nancy Kouris, who co-owns the growing bakery chain with her husband, Keith Kouris. “It’s a place my husband and I have visited for more years than I’d like to say. We fell in love with it and we’re looking forward to being the village bakery.”
Festivities at the grand opening include a 9 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony today, Thursday, and live music by local cover band “Unity” on Friday from 7 to 10 p.m.
The eatery will be offering samples of its baked goods, artisan breads, soups and sandwiches throughout the weekend.
In April Ms. Kouris confirmed plans to open a new location in downtown Greenport. The Kouris’ started their first bakery in Southampton 15 years ago and have since opened locations in Riverhead and Southold.
More than a decade ago, could Ms. Kouris ever have imagined Blue Duck Bakery Café would expand to what is it today?
“Oh goodness, no,” she said, chuckling lightly. “I didn’t even think that two years ago. Opportunities just came to us. We just decided to give it a try and we’re real happy. We love opening new stores. We hope to open another two in the future, but right now we’re going to deal with the four that we have.”
RACHEL YOUNG PHOTO | A production crew prepares to begin filming a mini-documentary Tuesday morning at Blue Duck Bakery Café in downtown Riverhead.
A production crew set up shop at Blue Duck Bakery Café in downtown Riverhead Tuesday to film a mini-documentary for Bank of America and the Community Development Corporation of Long Island.
The documentary will highlight lending efforts that are helping transform beleaguered areas across the region.
The bakery’s owners, Nancy and Keith Kouris, said they turned to the CDC to help secure funding for the eatery’s Riverhead location after their bank was unable to get them a loan.
Then Bank of America — a supporter that helps fund the CDC, a HUD-certified housing agency based in Centereach — provided the money needed to help fund the store’s launch, through the CDC. The bakery opened last December.
“They realized that Riverhead was a community that was up-and-coming and trying to be revitalized,” Ms. Kouris said of the CDC. “That’s how we finished our project – they lent us the money.”
The mini-documentary will be appearing on the Bank of America website, Ms. Kouris said.
John Bozek, the vice president of small business lending at the CDC, said Mr. and Mrs. Kouris, who also operate Blue Duck Bakery Café locations in Southold and Southampton, approached him about opening a third location in Riverhead.
Plans for a Greenport store are in the works.
“I saw their passion and dedication to the community,” Mr. Bozek said of Mr. and Mrs. Kouris, who are husband and wife. “I could definitely tell there were opportunities for growth in their business and that it was going to be a successful endeavor, so we decided to go ahead and fund them.”
“They saw us as a local business in the resurgence of Riverhead and it was a project the CDC was happy to do and very interested in,” Mr. Kouris said. “Bank of America saw that and figured [this] was a good place to tell our story.”