The saga that began with hopes of expanding the Bleeding Heart Bakery brand into new, more profitable territory, but instead turned into a battle of ex-partners via different forms of social media, seems to have come to a conclusion with yesterday’s announcement that the West Town Bleeding Heart Bakery will close for a week on Sunday and reopen as West Town Bakery & Diner. Bleeding Heart owners Michelle and Vinny Garcia initially teamed up with Roots/Fifty-50 owners Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner to open a bigger West Town Bakery and restaurant, which would serve as a central production facility sending product out to all the BHB storefronts. The idea was that Mohr and Weiner had the capital and managerial expertise to expand the brand and make the business— which had a history of opening and closing shops— more consistently profitable. But it didn’t exactly work out that way.
It’s by no means clear what happened— this post on an anti-Garcias Tumblr tells one story, of how much veracity we have no idea— but around the beginning of the year the Garcias already seemed to be estranged and were looking at their current Belmont space, and planning to call it “The Original Bleeding Heart Bakery,” an idea which seems to have been quickly quashed.
By March their exit from the partnership hit the public eye when a Facebook page called “Save Our Bakery” appeared, through which the Garcias were allegedly trying to put on a ska concert to raise money for a new location and talking about their organic bakery ideals having been betrayed by the West Town location and the partnership. (The Garcias later denied any connection to the benefit or the Facebook page, and the concert never happened.)
There was more sniping at Mohr and Weiner, who decided to remain entirely silent after a certain point, but it seemed obvious that this partnership was bound to end with Mohr and Weiner getting their bakery out from under a brand that, no matter how much of it they may have owned, would always be associated with the Garcias. That moment has now come, no doubt with the help of attorneys. No one wants to say anything about how it was settled— this is the first press release we’ve ever received that explicitly says that the owners will not talk about their restaurant— but you can draw your own conclusions from the Garcias’ oblique but emphatic response on their Facebook page, a quote:
Stand up for what you believe in, even if you’re standing alone.
accompanied by a picture of a tattooed female extending two middle fingers.
