Hopscotch Coffee is expanding its business as it transitions into ownership of recently-closed Rainbow Bakery.
Hopscotch Coffee owners Jane Kupersmith and Jeff Grant purchased Rainbow Bakery in early March. Rainbow Bakery, a vegan bakery previously owned by Matt Tobey and Lisa Dorazewski, closed for an indefinite period of time after an incident in which the bakery’s doors were found glued shut Dec. 9, according to Bloomington Police Department reports.
At the time of the incident, BPD Lt. John Kovach said the former Rainbow Bakery owners suspected friends of a former employee might have been responsible for the vandalism.
The bakery resumed business later that month. New ownership took over March 17.
“We love that place, so we didn’t want to see them just abandon it or sell it to someone else or even close down,” Grant said. “We saw it as a good opportunity to keep the place alive.”
Tobey and Dorazewski declined to comment on their selling of the business. Kupersmith and Grant also declined to comment more specifically on their purchase of Rainbow Bakery.
Rainbow Bakery’s name will remain, and the new owners have extended the hours and introduced a larger staff. It will now be open seven days a week, and they have introduced Hopscotch Coffee and additional baked goods to the menu.
Kupersmith and Grant had already been working on opening a new Hopscotch location and new roastery when the previous owners of Rainbow Bakery proposed Grant and Kupersmith buy the business.
While they had not originally intended to buy the bakery, Grant said, the purchase of Rainbow Bakery made sense.
Grant, who is the brother-in-law of previous Rainbow Bakery co-owner Tobey, was one of the bakery’s first employees, and he said Hopscotch had already been serving Rainbow products in their coffee shop.
According to Rainbow Bakery’s website, cake orders are temporarily unavailable during this transition.
Grant said Hopscotch Coffee and Rainbow Bakery have different business models, so they were not interested in changing the dynamic by turning the bakery into another Hopscotch location.
“We’re trying to maintain the identity,” Grant said. “The only change so far is that we’re taking their coffee program a little more seriously.”
Hopscotch Coffee also plans to open a new location, featuring a roastery and coffee bar, downtown April 1. The new storefront is located at 212 N. Madison St., next to Bloomingfoods West. The store’s opening will coincide with the annual opening of the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market, which takes place just down the street.
The new roastery will serve as Hopscotch Coffee’s headquarters because most of the building will be for roasting their coffee, which they have been doing in their original coffee shop, Grant said. Kupersmith said the business had outgrown the roasting space at the original Hopscotch location.
“Roasting is a loud and messy process, so we’re pretty excited to be freeing some of that space up,” she said.
Part of the building will also serve as a full espresso bar, which has no seating and is carryout only.
Grant said while Hopscotch Coffee and Rainbow Bakery will remain separate in many ways, the cooperation between the old and new coffee shops and the bakery is important.
“I think that the idea is that all three businesses support one another,” Grant said. “Rainbow supports the two Hopscotches with baked goods, and this place supports Rainbow with coffee, and specifically this location supports all the locations with coffee because we’ll be doing all the roasting here now.”
