Walter Pat's Bakery Cafe won Hatch Detroit. Now Lauren Ellis builds the storefront.

Lauren Ellis pitched her bakery on a Wednesday night at Wayne State University's Industry Innovation Center, and she walked out with the prize. Walter Pat's Bakery Cafe won the 2025 Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest by TechTown, taking the $100,000 grand prize from Comerica Bank plus a business-support package from TechTown Detroit. Ellis plans to use it to open a brick-and-mortar bakery in Detroit's District 5.

The win came after more than 21,000 public votes, according to the contest organizers. The field had narrowed to four finalists, who each pitched live to a panel of judges and the audience on June 11 at the Industry Innovation Center on Burroughs Street. The other three were Detroit Culture & Clay, Halie & Co, and Livy's Sweet Rolls. Public votes and the judges' deliberation decided the winner.

Walter Pat is Ellis's grandmother, and the bakery carries her name. Ellis trained as a pastry chef for more than a decade, graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 2010 before working in kitchens in New York, Chicago, and Sydney, per the bakery's own account. Her concept is viennoiserie, the French canon of laminated, butter-heavy pastries: croissants, brioche, Danish, and specialty breads. Walter Pat's describes itself as a seasonally driven, small-batch, Black woman-owned bakery that leans on Michigan produce and a mix of Midwest and Southern flavors.

District 5 is where Ellis's grandmother lived, which is part of why she is putting the storefront there. Under the contest rules, the winning business opens in Detroit, Hamtramck, or Highland Park.

This was the 13th edition of the contest. Since 2012, Comerica and the Comerica Charitable Foundation have invested roughly $1.3 million into Hatch Detroit, per the organizers. The program points to its alumni as the measure of its track record: dozens of businesses opened, hundreds of jobs created, and millions invested in local economic development.

The three runners-up did not leave empty-handed. Each received support tied to the contest, and all four finalists remain in TechTown's pipeline as they work toward opening.

"TechTown is proud of Walter Pat's Bakery Cafe's win and excited to continue to support the business as it grows into a staple in the local community," said Christianne Malone, chief program officer of TechTown Detroit, in the announcement. "All of this year's Top 4 businesses will bring vitality to Detroit's small business ecosystem."

For Ellis, the grant is a start, not a finished bakery. Construction has not begun, and a $100,000 grant rarely covers a full build-out on its own. What it does is close some of the distance between the kitchens where she trained and the one she is trying to open under her grandmother's name in District 5.