From a chef's kitchen
to a baker's counter.
Loafi is Rich Sharples' first solo bakery, opened in August 2025 after more than a decade running kitchens for the Elite Bistros group — including Hispi in Didsbury and Kala in Manchester.
Loafi started small, on purpose. Rich spent more than a decade in the kitchens of Hispi in Didsbury and Kala in Manchester — a lifetime of long services, pass calls and a chef's instinct for what tastes like home. When the chance came to take over the old Levanter site on Square Street, he wanted to do less, slower.
No reinvention. No “deconstructed” anything. Just the bakes the north has been doing for a hundred years — custard tarts, Eccles cakes, stout sourdough, oven bottoms — made properly, every morning, with butter you can taste.
The doors open at eight. The custard tarts arrive shortly after. Most days, they're gone by lunch. That's the plan.
Ramsbottom, not London.
We’re proudly a small bakery in a market town. The supplier list is short and local.
One thing, well.
We’d rather sell out of a brilliant custard tart at eleven than carry a tray of average ones until close.
Slow, on purpose.
Sourdough builds overnight. We open at eight because the loaves told us to. The pace is the point.