Muddy’s Bake Shop is being sold to Belltower Coffeehouse & Studio.
Kat Gordon, who founded Muddy’s in 2008, decided to sell the beloved bakery at 2497 Broad Avenue and concentrate on teaching baking. “I started teaching the classes about six years ago,” Gordon says. “I’ve never been happier than when I’m doing that.”
Muddy’s was housed in a few different locations over the years. “The whole bakery is so amazing and great. I really shrank it a few years ago,” she says, “which was the best thing in the world for me and the business. But the business has been trying to grow again.
“Muddy’s needs to belong to the community. It needs to age when it wants to age and be what the community wants it to be.”
Belltower is the crew to move it forward, she says. “They’re so on fire for this … They’re so wanting to put their work and their money and everything into the community.
“The right people showed up at the right time.”
In an Instagram post, Gordon says, “With passing the torch, I know that now is the right time and these are the right people! Belltower is owned and run by Memphians who believe in this city and in Muddy’s and are committed to caring for this community in all the “Muddy’s” ways. And at the heart of it all, the things that matter most aren’t changing — the same team, the same recipes, the same care in every detail.”
And, she says, “I’ll begin a new chapter in my career.”
Micah Dempsey, Belltower co-owner Christopher Galbreath, and creative director Stacey Hinkle are delighted.
They’re not changing name or the brand of Muddy’s, Dempsey says. “We intend to change very little about what Muddy’s is. The name/brand of Muddy’s “is only second to the quality of their product.”
“Kat and I have been good friends for a long time because we are small business owners in Memphis, and Memphis is a city we both love dearly.”
Belltower, which is at 525, 529, and 531 South Highland, offers pottery classes as well as dining. A second Belltower coffee shop location is at 6903 Great View Drive North in Shelby Farms Park. They roast their own coffee at another location.
Honeysuckle Sweets, their wholesale bakery, will fold into Muddy’s baking operation, Dempsey says. Muddy’s general manager Andrea Fortwendel will continue in her role. Hinkle will “take some of the business responsibly” of the Muddy’s operation.
Muddy’s Bake Shop will remain at 2497 Broad Avenue for a long time “if it’s up to us,” Dempsey says. And as far as Muddy’s Bake Shop as a whole, he says, “Over the course of 2026 we don’t intend to make any kind of a change.”
He and Gordon began talking about Muddy’s possibly being sold about a year and a half ago, Dempsey says. He got a sense she was ready to sell the bakery. He told her, “Truly not pressured, but if you get to a point where you’re thinking about selling, we’re at least interested.”
For about six months, Dempsey, Gordon, and Galbreath hung out together and got to know each other. They realized both Muddy’s and Belltower have an “astounding amount of overlap in our vaues, mission, and goals for Memphis.”
Gordon is still going to be around to answer questions. “I’m in for a year of consultation with them,” she says. “They’re not going to hit a holiday for the first time [without] access to me.
“I’m a recipe nerd. I love details. It’s a small business. We know it’s going to be Christmas [soon].”
Gordon’s got the answers to the questions: “Things I don’t know if the staff even knows.”
And she won’t be far away if anybody needs some advice. “I’m literally going to be in the space next door.”
That’s where she’s going to conduct her baking classes. “I’m going to keep doing them in the Muddy’s classroom I built six years ago, in this building. I don’t even have to move my mixers. I’m still right here.”
