Leslie Mackie, who founded Macrina Bakery in 1993, is leaving the Seattle company she spent 33 years building.

Mackie announced Tuesday, Oct. 27, that she is moving on to what she calls her "third chapter," as first reported by KIRO 7. She said she had been weighing the departure for some time but felt the leadership team was ready.

"Now it's time for me to do my own thing again," Mackie said.

Macrina operates seven cafés, including locations on Queen Anne's McGraw Street, in Capitol Hill, Belltown and SoDo.

The bakery employs about 300 people and supplies more than 1,000 wholesale customers across the Puget Sound area. Its breads and pastries are stocked at PCC, Whole Foods, QFC, Metropolitan Market and Town & Country stores.

Scott France, president and part-owner of Macrina, will continue running the business with his partners. France said ownership has not changed and that Mackie's standards are already embedded in the bakers she trained.

Head baker Phuong Bui, whom Mackie hired as a dishwasher in 1994, will still lead the bread team. No public statement from Bui has been reported.

Mackie trained at the California Culinary Academy, cooked under Lydia Shire in Boston and studied bread in Italy and France before serving as head baker at Seattle's Grand Central Bakery.

Casera, the first loaf she created for Macrina, took nearly a year of experimenting. It remains the house bread.

The James Beard Foundation nominated Mackie for Outstanding Pastry Chef four years in a row, according to KIRO 7.

Julia Child featured her on Baking with Julia, and both Bon Appétit and Food & Wine have named Macrina among the best bakeries in the country.

That original six-employee Belltown storefront on First Avenue has grown into seven cafés and a production bakery in Kent, with additional locations in Maple Leaf and on Mercer Island.

Mackie's next venture is Project Barnstorm, which she started in 2020 as a line of small-batch conserves made with fruit from her Vashon Island farm.

She plans to add baking classes, team-building sessions and custom events for small groups. She described it as a passion project that will stay small.

The Queen Anne café at 615 W. McGraw St. opened in 2001. No changes to any Macrina locations have been announced.