When Chris McLaurin held his first “Sunday Bunday” pop-up on a cold January morning, his baked sweets buns, cookies, and soft pretzels sold out in just a couple hours. Through the take-out window at Queeny’s in Durham, he passed out big buns cloaked in shiny glazes — sweet orange, chocolate, salted honey, and lemon poppyseed — and steaming coffees to ward off the biting winter chill.

After that first pop-up, he checked his social media page and found an outpouring of thanks and compliments. “Those chocolate buns…will be dreaming about them until next Sunday!” one user wrote.

Chris McLaurin photograph by STACEY SPRENZ

“I love the personal moments on social media when people reach out to say how much they enjoyed the bun,” McLaurin says. “That’s my favorite part of doing this.”

Lutra — the Latin word for otter — might be McLaurin’s first concept, but he’s an established member of the Triangle’s food scene. The Chapel Hill native was previously the chef du cuisine at Poole’side Pies; before that, he gained experience at heavy hitters in Washington, D.C.: Komi and Little Serow.

Lutra’s granola bowl is topped with house-made cinnamon-almond-raisin granola, jam, and fresh fruit.  photograph by STACEY SPRENZ

When it was decided that Poole’side Pies would close in late 2023, McLaurin and owner Ashley Christensen sat down to discuss what would come next for him. Christensen talked through McLaurin’s ideas with him, acting as his sounding board as he pieced together what would become Lutra.

“One of the neatest things about the food industry is that it’s so close knit and everyone wants to lift each other up,” he says, crediting partnerships like the ones at Queeny’s and Cheeni to building Lutra’s following.

“My background is pretty divided between pastry and dinner,” McLaurin says. “I’ve never been the chef who wants to silo myself on either side of the divide.” photograph by STACEY SPRENZ

This summer, after two-and-a-half years of pop-ups and participating in local farmers markets, McLaurin will open Lutra Cafe & Bakery in the American Tobacco Campus on June 26. “It’s a really fun space and good energy. It’s both a destination and a place where people already are,” he says.

The word he uses to describe his food is “craveable” — it’s all about the dishes that make him happy.

Lutra’s assorted pastries range from classic orange and vanilla-cinnamon to seasonal flavors like strawberry-lemonade and chocolate. Photography courtesy of Lutra Cafe & Bakery

The chocolate and orange sweet buns, for instance, were inspired by the pillowy Pillsbury rolls McLaurin’s mom made for him and his sister on Saturday mornings. As he expanded his pop-ups, offering brunch at Cheeni on select days, the 100-layer hashbrowns — impossibly thin slivers of potato, stacked and fried into crunchy pillars — and breakfast sandwiches served on savory buns proved to be bestsellers.

“We’re approaching guests where they are in this moment, when they want exceptional but casual food with really excellent service,” McLaurin says.

The café’s colorful interior — an electric mix of pink and blue — boasts a coffee counter where guests place their orders and cozy tables covered with soft tablecloths. In the place of a long wall behind the counter is a see-through window displaying the activity unfolding in the kitchen. It’s a place where friends can meet up for brunch, passersby can grab a sweet pick-me-up for the road, and remote workers can post up with plenty of caffeine to fuel their creative flow.

Everything about the space is a reflection of McLaurin’s community in central North Carolina. Local purveyors contribute much of the kitchen’s ingredients, from Firsthand Foods’ pork for Lutra’s breakfast sausage to the blueberries in their seasonal lemonade. The coffee bar uses Little Waves espresso beans from Lutra’s neighbor Cocoa Cinnamon. Even the zinnias on each table come from McLaurin’s stepmother’s garden, cradled in ceramic vases McLaurin made by hand.

It’s the sort of place where, on a weekday morning, visitors and day workers at the American Tobacco Campus file inside the brightly colored café, eyeing the pastry case by the front door and laughing with the staff at the register. Through the windows behind them, team members ferry trays of over-sized cookies between ovens and cooling racks in the kitchen and prepare plates of biscuits and gravy, breakfast sandwiches, and granola bowls. Past the register, guests gather with friends or family members around tables in the dining room, savoring each other’s company and the meal that anchors the occasion — taking the chance to unwind and connect before resuming the day’s bustle.  

Lutra Cafe & Bakery
312 Blackwell Street
Noell Building #102
Durham, NC 27701
lutrabakery.com