A Guide to (Properly) Hyped New York Bakeries
There's a reason why these places have lines.
New York's bakery scene is having a moment. From the East Village to Williamsburg, people are lining up for durian cakes, pandan coffee and croissants made with extra butter — proof that the new generation of bakers combining heritage with technique is exactly what New Yorkers wanted.
I spent the past few weeks talking to bakers across the city and put together this guide to some of the best bakeries in New York.
Six Bakeries Worth Your Time
LÀ LÁ Bakeshop, East Village
The colorful milk buns here — soft spheres filled with taro, pistachio, and matcha — are unlike anything else in the city. That's the point.
"Vietnamese food is so much more than phở and bánh mì," managing partner Tung Pham says. "It's a country of more than 100 million people. And we enjoy cake too."
The Vietnamese Salted Egg Cake is their signature: vanilla chiffon with salted egg yolk sauce, ringed with pork floss, topped with more salted egg crumble. It's Vietnam's most popular cake flavor, but you couldn't find it in New York until now.
Order: The pandan cream foam iced coffee and their durian cakes.
From Lucie, Lower East Side
Lucie Franc de Ferrière got laid off from her art gallery job during the pandemic and started baking for her boyfriend's café. Customers kept coming back.
"I missed my mother's cakes — flavorful, not too sweet, always made with intention," she says. Growing up on a vineyard in southern France, she was surrounded by constant baking. Now she's doing the same thing from a tiny Lower East Side kitchen.
Each cake feels deliberate. She's working on a cookbook.
Order: The carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies.
L'Appartement 4F, Brooklyn Heights & West Village
Ashley and Gautier Coiffard started selling croissants from their apartment. Now they have two locations with lines around the block.
Gautier uses his engineering background to perfect recipes and opts for more butter than traditional croissant recipes call for. The Brooklyn Heights location was born because the community reached out to them directly.
Order: The croissants that made them famous.
Hani's Bakery, Chinatown
The bakery’s co-creator Miro Uskokovic’s mother dreamed of opening a bakery in Yugoslavia. War and cancer intervened. As a child, Miro promised he'd give her the bakery she wanted. This is it. He opened it with his wife Shilpa, and it’s taking off.
His flavor combinations are bold: black poppy seeds with sour cherries, tomatoes with peaches, strawberry with passion fruit. Production starts at 4:30 AM.
Order: The morning buns and a layer cake that speaks to you.
Radio Bakery, Greenpoint
Radio was born during the pandemic when the team couldn't run their restaurant the way they wanted, so they pivoted to takeout and fine-tuned their baking. Now they focus on viennoiserie and focaccia at both of their locations. The Radio Bakery team opened a location in Prospect Heights earlier this year.
"We keep our focus tight and try to be the best at those items," says partner Ben Howell. It's working. Their croissants and fresh focaccia sandwiches have built a devoted following.
Order: Fresh focaccia and croissants.
Birdee Bakery, Williamsburg
Renata Ameni named her bakery after her late mother's nickname for her, “passarinho," which is Portuguese for little bird. Everything here is designed to evoke memories: pepperoni pizza croissants, churro-flavored croissants, homemade goldfish crackers.
Located in the former Domino Sugar refinery, Birdee represents Renata stepping back from her restaurant group role to focus entirely on her own thing.
Order: The churro croissants.
The Recipe for Success
The common thread among successful bakeries, both new and old, is consistency. As Ashley from L'Appartement 4F puts it: "Branding can be fun and gimmicks can make you go viral, but that doesn't have long lasting effects. If your product is good and remains good, people will come."
These bakers understand that they're building a legacy, and they’re focused on the long haul. They're also filling real gaps — Vietnamese baking, French-style cakes that aren't too sweet, croissants that are made with technique.
And they're creating neighborhood anchors. Good bakeries become third places where people can exist without agenda. At Hani's, you'll see "parents with tiny babies in the early morning hours, quietly decompressing over coffee and cinnamon buns," the bakery’s co-owner Shilpa Uskokovic said.
What’s Next?
Ashley (L'Appartement 4F) — “The New York City bakery scene is going to continue to grow and it makes me so excited. Paris has a bakery on almost every block and I think NYC can afford to have more great bakeries.”
Shilpa (Hani's) — “We might see a lot more regional baking, or bakeries with a very defined sense of place. In much the same way that restaurants that were broadly classified as Indian or Chinese or Thai in the past have given way to hyper regional, specialized establishments that showcase food from Tamil Nadu or Kerala or Northern Thailand or the Sichuan province, I reckon bakeries will follow suit.”
Tung (LÀ LÁ) — “We'll continue to see bakeries pop up that focus on cultural memories. We opened specifically because we wanted to share Vietnamese-style cakes.”
Renata (Birdee) — “It's important for new bakeries to establish themselves based on consistency and steadfastness to your vision. In my opinion, chasing trends can be fleeting.”
Kelly (Radio Bakery) — “We are going to see a lot more restaurants opening bakeries and offshoot cafes. Most restaurants can no longer afford pastry chefs. Not to mention, bakeries and cafes have better working hours (and better margins).”
Lucie (From Lucie) — “We’ve been thinking about a sit down space, somewhere people can have a slice of cake, and stay a while. Creating a space that feels like an extension of the warmth and joy behind our cakes is definitely something we’re thinking about for the future.”
The Perfect Bakery Crawl Route
Start: Hani's in Chinatown for morning buns and coffee.
Next: LÀ LÁ in the East Village for milk buns and that pandan coffee.
Then: From Lucie in the Lower East Side for whatever cake you’re in the mood for.
Brooklyn: L'Appartement 4F in Brooklyn Heights for at least one croissant.
End: Radio Bakery in Greenpoint for focaccia or Birdee in Williamsburg for something nostalgic.
The city's bakery scene works because these people take their craft seriously without taking themselves too seriously. They're making good things in neighborhoods that need them. And people are here for it.
I’m melting like butter, but I love writing this newsletter. Thanks for being here. 🥐