Butterscotch Bakery Will Open a Second Site in Marylebone

Butterscotch — the popular bakery and delivery service from Bea Vo — is opening a second site in Marylebone, as reported by Big Hospitality. This will pair with the inaugural site at White City Place, which opened in October 2017.

The bakery will be on James Street, a stone’s throw from Bond Street tube and in an area saturated with restaurants: Vo will count Hoppers, Patty & Bun, Bone Daddies, Social Wine & Tapas (from Jason Atherton) and Ekachai as near-neighbours. Eater London understands that Vo, formerly of Bea’s of Bloomsbury, hopes to open the site by Valentine’s Day. Vo’s approach to the bakery — a North American foundation with room for global inflections — has won Butterscotch a wealth of admirers, and will likely prove to be a USP in an area with a surfeit of cafés.

A signature element of the original Butterscotch is the porridge bar: five bases, from classic pinhead oats to a five-grain, coconut milk number are paired with over sixty toppings, though not (necessarily?) all at once. The bar reflects the way Vo has galvanised baked and breakfast standbys with her wealth of influences and experience, but word is not yet out on whether it will make an appearance on James Street.

Given Vo’s prior expansion of Bea’s of Bloomsbury, which had five eponymous sites by the time she left in 2008, and her position at the head of Soul Food Food Enterprises (backer of Stax Diner, Boondocks and Famous Flames), seeking growth in such turbulent times is perhaps a well mitigated risk. Given Butterscotch’s growing online presence, and the new site’s high footfall location, the opening looks like a sensible pairing with the White City site.