Saxonburg’s Batch secures financial future by purchasing its building
While the Hotel Saxonburg is gone — at least temporarily — another Saxonburg business isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
On Wednesday, March 19, Batch, a bake shop owned by Meghan Pohl and Jessica Brewster, purchased its property at 230 W. Main St. and secured its future.
“It means that we're here to stay,” said co-owner Pohl. “We're not going anywhere. We want to grow with the community.”
Prior to Wednesday, Pohl and Brewster were leasing the property from Stefan and Mary Ann Sembrat, who purchased it in 2016 for $205,000. Batch moved into the space in 2017, after spending its first three years in the space now occupied by Live Painting PGH a few blocks away.
Before the Sembrats purchased the property and Batch moved in, the property was a house.
“They bought it with the goal that we would move in and renovate the downstairs,” Pohl said. “It was a residential home, and we redid it all. The hope was always that we would be able to buy it.”
Since its opening in 2014, Batch has been popular and highly acclaimed, being featured in multiple Pittsburgh-area publications and television outlets.
Now that its financial future is in its own hands, Pohl says Batch doesn’t plan to make any major changes anytime soon, except to possibly add outdoor seating.
“We have no immediate plans for expansion,” Pohl said. “We’re just growing within our means.”
The current Batch building has had a long and colorful history. According to research performed by Saxonburg historian Fred Caesar, the building once was home to a meat market owned by the Stuebgen family, which sold Saxonburg Bologna.
