Chris Johnson, owner and head baker of Nomad Coffee in Burlington, died unexpectedly on Friday, March 21. He was 45.
Johnson joined the Nomad team in August 2021, a few months after moving to Vermont from New York City, where he had been working for the inventor of the Cronut, Dominique Ansel. He purchased the coffee biz from its founders, Nicole Grinstead and Andrew Sepic, in fall 2023.
Initially self-taught, Johnson had been baking for only seven years when he stepped into Nomad’s chief pastry role; he spent three of those at Ansel’s bakeries, where he focused on lamination. That experience — and time on the pastry team at Thomas Keller’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant Per Se — helped him make an immediate impact on Burlington’s pastry scene with his exemplary croissants and caramelized kouign amanns.
The affable chef, who placed second on Food Network’s “Chopped Sweets” in May 2021, had a megawatt grin, a quick sense of humor — including a deep love of puns — and an easy laugh that endeared him to many who stopped in for one of his sweet treats.
In a post on Instagram on Monday, Grinstead and Sepic shared the news of Johnson’s sudden death, writing, “If you’ve crossed paths with Chris at Nomad, you had the pleasure of experiencing his extraordinary baking talent. But you also undoubtedly experienced his generous spirit and big heart (as well as his wide but impeccable choice of music at the cafe). His passion was baking, but more so what it represented — sharing what he loved with those around him.”
An outpouring of remembrances from local business owners, customers and friends on the Instagram post underscored Johnson’s dedication to his craft, his dogs and his community.
“Chris had such a wide breadth of knowledge and interests,” Sepic told Seven Days on Tuesday. “He was a very rich, textured person. We’re just feeling at a loss.”
Sepic also shared a note from Grinstead: “Take care of your mental health,” she wrote. “Food and beverage ownership is hard and it’s easy to feel alone.”
Johnson had planned to open a bakery on Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace when he took over the multilocation business, but it never came to fruition. The Essex Junction location closed last year.
Nomad’s remaining location on Flynn Avenue in Burlington was open for coffee on Tuesday and will be open this week, said Magda Van Dusen of Brio Coffeeworks, who took a small ownership stake along with her husband, Nate, when Johnson purchased the biz. The Van Dusens are working with two Nomad employees to keep things running in the short term while they figure out what’s next for the café, Van Dusen told Seven Days.
“It’s obviously not the same,” she said. “It’s just the coffee. A lot of things are missing, but we felt it was important to carry on.”
Johnson has family members in Massachusetts, Florida and Washington, D.C., Sepic said. Plans for a memorial service are still being determined. An additional gathering in his honor at Nomad is in the works — likely for this coming weekend — and details will be shared on the company’s social media, Van Dusen said.
“On one hand, he was a very private person,” she said of Johnson. “On the other hand, he was amazing at lighting up any space he was in. We want to have a place for people to remember him and gather, because that’s what Chris loved.”
Johnson left several batches of pastries in the café’s freezer, Van Dusen said, and the team hopes to share them whenever a gathering happens.
To use Johnson’s own pun-filled words, he “made the world a butter place.”