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Moss Culinary Studio began as a pop-up bakery at the Lane County Farmers Market. Within a year, owners Katie Moss and Cody MacFadyen opened a storefront cafe, serving pastries, sandwiches, yogurt bowls and other unfussy breakfast and lunch fare — all made from scratch using ingredients from local farmers.
In early July, Katie Moss was making marionberry galettes at Moss Culinary Studio, her new storefront bakery in downtown Eugene.
Last week, she slapped pickled golden beets and whipped feta on focaccia. She knows her local farms so well she can tell you where her favorite cucumbers come from (Upriver Organics).
On certain days, you might see the bakery’s latest farmers market haul through the window: pints of impossibly red strawberries and plump blackberries, chimichurri-bound carrot tops, juicy heirloom tomatoes.
Moss’ seasonal menu, which can change by the week, is an ode to producers and makers in one of the most agriculturally diverse regions in the world.
“If we are supporting our farmers, they can keep producing and feeding their local community,” Moss said. “There’s a lot of strength in that.”
Moss Culinary Studio launched in 2025 as a pop-up bakery at the Lane County Farmers Market, focusing on savory galettes, strawberry shortcakes and other baked goods with ingredients Moss bought from her neighbors at the market.
Within a year, Moss and her partner, Cody MacFadyen, signed a lease on a Willamette Street storefront — the former home of Poppi’s Anatolia, the Greek restaurant that moved to 5th Street Public Market.
After months of renovations, including a fresh coat of marigold paint, Moss opened her eponymous cafe in June.
Moss, who is from Roseburg, said Eugene’s downtown has vacillated between slow periods and revival, empty storefronts and new businesses since the early 2000s, when she attended University of Oregon. The cycle isn’t unique to Eugene either, she added.
“I think we are definitely on an upswing,” Moss said. “There’s so much potential. I’m always telling Cody, I’m like, ‘We have to be the change that we want to see. We have to be the place we want to go.’”
An inflection point
Moss and MacFadyen met and fell in love eight years ago while working in Seattle’s booming tech industry.
In 2019, about a year into dating, the couple was struck by a drunk driver. Between the two, they suffered shattered bones, a dislocated foot, broken ribs, a punctured lung and shredded organs. After months of surgeries, hospital stays and physical therapy, of rebuilding and relearning their bodies, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“It put this perspective in our lives of what’s really important,” MacFadyen said.
With their corporate offices shut down, the couple ditched their Seattle apartments and bought a house in Eugene on a whim.
“At that point I was just like, ‘I’m going to do it. What are they going to do? Fire me?’” Moss said.
MacFadyen, seeing how much his partner loved to cook — she’d cook up feasts every Sunday, experimenting with ingredients and flavor combos — encouraged Moss to pursue food full time.
“He was like, ‘You have so much experience and training. Why not do something with it?’” Moss said, remembering.
‘Why not do something about it?’
Moss left her corporate career in 2021 to work at Groundwork Organics, a Junction City farm, soaking up everything she could about sustainable agriculture.
In 2023, she continued her education abroad and spent six months at two culinary programs in Italy and Ireland: She made salami as a butchery apprentice in Tuscany and cooked on Ballymaloe Cookery School’s 100-acre organic farm.
Back in the United States, she found commercial kitchen space in Eugene and started her pop-up bakery, eventually becoming known at the farmers market for her savory pastries: creamy veggie galettes, dill quiche, buttermilk biscuits.
Moss Culinary Studio is a radical departure from the fast-paced, Slack-riddled world of software and e-commerce. Instead of coordinating email responses to her boss, Moss dreams up menu items. The couple wakes up hours before sunrise to prep dough for the focaccia, schiacciata (a Tuscan flatbread) and various pastries. They spread stracciatella cheese and pistachio cream on mortadella sandwiches. They feed people.
“This is the most rewarding work I’ve ever done,” said MacFadyen, who quit his job two years ago to focus on the bakery. “I try not to stare at people, but when I see somebody take that first bite, like, that’s such a good feeling.”
If you go
Moss Culinary Studio is at 992 Willamette St., Eugene and is open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday.
The menu features seasonal breakfast and lunch options with locally grown and produced ingredients, including yogurt and granola with fruit, oatmeal, coffee, sandwiches, soups and salads, alongside a rotating selection of cakes, cookies and pastries.
