HELENA — The Grateful Bread is expanding to the Lewis and Clark Library, where they'll be stationed selling their sweet and savory services in the library cafe kiosk.
Grateful Bread owners, Riley and Rainey Keating's, expansion to the library comes three years after they quit their jobs and put everything into the bakery business.
"It's a great opportunity for us to be able to try new things constantly as well as be supported by our community. And now to be at another location, we just really like being involved in the community and we're not too far away from our original location," said Rainey.
The kiosk will offer coffee drinks, baked goods, grab-and-go sandwiches, and salads.
Lewis and Clark Library Director, John Finn, a Grateful Bread customer, saw the opportunity to work with them on reopening the kiosk and jumped at the chance.
"They catered a staff event for us. And when they dropped the food off in the morning, I asked them if they might be interested in the coffee shop and they said that they would and that they would be in touch. And we've been working on it since then and that was on December the fifth," said Finn.
The cafe in the Lewis and Clark Library will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. when it opens in May.
The Keating's tell me they are happy to be able to move into a community space that has always been a part of their lives.
"We have always had the library be a huge part of our family and lives, and both of us were small children until now, and we're just really excited to further our connection with the community and yeah, we love the library and the new work and it's kind of serendipitous for us. Our front counter is actually the repurposed old front counter for the library, so it's full circle for us. we felt like it was meant to be," said Riley.
The Keating's history with the library gets Finn excited for this next chapter for the Lewis and Clark Library.
"I think having a couple of library lovers at the helm of the cafe is going to be really great and really happy that their hoping to expand on just a simple coffee shop and bring in sandwiches and soups and breakfast. We're really looking forward to having that full service," said Finn.
You can find the kiosk with a touch of grey in the corner of the library's main entrance.
The kiosk will open on May 1st, so instead of walking out of the library with a box of rain, like the title of a Grateful Dead song, you can instead walk out with a box of baked goods.
