Sub Rosa Bakery, the beloved Church Hill fixture helmed by multi-time James Beard Award nominees Evin and Evrim Dogu, made headlines in November 2024 when a fire shut down the business.

The disaster was both devastating and surreal — it marks the second time a fire has shut down Sub Rosa, following a 2013 blaze that shuttered the bakery only a few months after its opening. “We went through the stages of grief, really,” Evin says.

“But we went through them really fast. Because we already went through it, we couldn’t lie to ourselves and say this was only going to take a month or two to recover,” Evrim adds. “You have a weird sense of knowing what’s coming, but you also can’t step into the same place in the river twice, so you feel very out of your element.”

Community support continues

Back in 2013, the Dogus say they were shocked by the community’s outpouring of support which included fundraisers, letters and even children’s drawings to decorate their windows. Fortunately, some things don’t change. In 2024, Richmond businesses and citizens again rallied for the bakery-turned-neighborhood-cornerstone, including a GoFundMe that raised $72,122, exceeding its $50,000 goal.

“I say this as a former public school teacher — so many people work so hard in this world and so few people are acknowledged for their hard work, and that’s never been the case for us,” Evin says. “Year after year, people have showed their support.”

As they managed recovery, there was always enough support to keep taking the next step. They held a series of Sub Rosa pop-ups throughout the city; in April, they began operating out of Hatch, which allowed them to continue selling at the Birdhouse Farmers Market (where Sub Rosa got its start before establishing a brick-and-mortar business). They kept their milling operations going throughout the year, and maintained a network of bakery and restaurant clients for their wholesale bulk flour.

But since November 2024, the Dogus have found themselves pulled between two poles: the bewildering reality of the destruction and the sudden blank canvas before them. The 2013 fire was damaging; the 2024 blaze, however, destroyed the space, stripping it down to the studs. Beneath the terror of uncertainty, there was a quieter question: When you’re truly back to square one, where do you go next?

Rechanneling their energies

They have spent the past year working their way to an answer. For the past 12 years, the Dogus have been so deeply involved in Sub Rosa — running the business (managing human resources, administration, payroll and the like) and working within it (everything from baking and recipe development to maintaining relationships with wheat farmers)—that high-level thinking was squeezed into the margins. The fire, by forcing day-to-day operations to a halt, brought this thinking to the center.

“I’m not going to lie, once we realized we were going to be OK and no one was hurt, and we had a new normal, there was a sense of peace that I had more control,” Evin says. “It wasn’t a 12-month vacation by any means, but for a big chunk of the year I felt like I could take a breath and see things in the macro more than I had been able to. Now it’s come full circle.”

One year later, they’re prepared to open their doors again — but the Dogus are clear that the Sub Rosa of the past is not the Sub Rosa of today. Prior to the fire, there had been talks of a second new business; now that creative energy has been channeled under a familiar name.

“For me, it represents an opportunity to work in the bakery in a way I kind of lost touch with,” says Evrim, who spent some of the past year facilitating an international grain operation in the country of Georgia. “Essentially, Evin and I are opening a new bakery. There’s something seamless about the change, but there’s also a huge shift.”

Electric stove replacing wood-fired oven

For one, the wood-fired oven is no more, and “wood-fired” has been removed from the bakery’s signage. An electric stove twice the size has replaced it, accompanied by a new mixer (also double the size of its predecessor) and other new features to facilitate more seamless operations.

A year-long pause also allowed Sub Rosa to achieve a major material milestone: After expanding their milling department, the menu will now feature 100% of their own stone-ground flour. Combined with new gear, the siblings — well-known for their anthropological approach to the art of bread and pastry — are prepared to articulate their vision in a refreshed way.

“The most important changes are yet to come, in terms of what we’re able to do with our new equipment and what kind of place we end up being for the community,” Evin says.

The lead up to the reopening has been a mix of anxiety and excitement. For the Dogus, this is the latest hurdle in an ongoing marathon of running a business, where the feeling of resettling lives alongside the anticipation of what the future holds.

“Relief will be a couple months from now when we’re more stable,” Evin says. “We want the things we’ve been talking about for a year to come to fruition.”

For now, two things are certain: People will be breaking bread at Sub Rosa again, and they’ve really missed it.

“This past week with our last pop-ups, the support felt even more powerful to me,” Evrim says. “The community came out in the cold and bought essentially frozen pastries out of our courtyard because they’re so excited for us to be back. The fact that so many people, hundreds of people throughout the week, were so excited over a year later, was so moving.”

Sub Rosa officially reopens its doors at 620 N 25th St. Tuesday Dec. 16 at 7 a.m. Check their social media and website for updated hours of operation.