Finding your trusted local bakery is a New York right of passage. Your preferred loaf of bread, breakfast pastry, and dessert could be just around the corner or a subway ride away. And once you’ve tasted their baked goods, you’re likely to be smitten forever. Whether you’re in the mood for the perfect loaf of bread, a slice of sweet pound cake, or a decadent chocolate chip cookie, below are our picks for the top Brooklyn bakeries.
Bakeri
This Brooklyn bakery is a staple for locals and tourists alike. This bakery has plenty of outdoor and indoor dining, making it a great place to take a break. Bakeri is tucked away on a quiet, neighborhood street between Franklin and Manhattan Ave, one of thneighborhoods’s most bustling areas. After enjoying a slice of cake or pie, you can check out the cafes, restaurants, bars, and shopping in surrounding Greenpoint.
The goods: They sell fresh loaves like sourdough rye and baguettes, as well as a daily assortment of pastries like cinnamon rolls, scones, croissants, and coconut carrot cake.
Insider’s Tip: Looking for more delicious baked goods? Check out our list of where to find the best bread in NYC!
La Bicyclette Bakery
We’ve written about this spot as part of our favorite Croissants in NYC, and we can’t help but include them again for their other baked goods. Located in Williamsburg, La Bicyclette is definitely a can’t-miss Brooklyn bakeries. It’s run by the globetrotting French chef Florent Andreytchenko, or Flo.
The goods: in addition to their renowned croissants, they make tarts, baguettes, loaves of bread, danishes, sugar brioche, and financiers.
Poppy’s
Poppy’s café and catering is a staple establishment in Cobble Hill, one of Brooklyn’s most picturesque neighborhoods lined with trees and classic brownstones. This small café has outdoor seating where you can enjoy your coffee and snack.
The goods: A buttermilk biscuit, cranberry orange scone, lemon poppy semolina loaf, chocolate tahini cake, apple cider Bundt cake, and a cardamom pecan coffee cake are among the mouth-watering treats.
Saraghina Bakery
Saraghina Bakery is Bed Stuy’s favorite place to pick up a loaf or a snack. Located on Halsey Ave, Saraghina is a stone’s throw away from a handful of cafes, bars, and coffee shops. The café also sells produce, gourmet pizzas, a selection of high-end cooking goods like pasta, sauces, and oils, and a great selection of cheeses.
The goods: Their loaves include whole wheat, flax seed, sunflower seed, and traditional mountain bread from the western Alps of Italy. Their desserts include cinnamon buns, panna cotta, scones, Danishes, and cookies.
Winner
Winner also hits the list for best croissants in Brooklyn, but their bread and other baked goods can’t be overlooked. It’s quite typical for their tasty morsels to run out by quitting time, and waiting in a line to order at this Park Slope bakery is not unusual. But lines tend to be for good reason, and here is no exception.
The goods: Winner’s bread include whole wheat ciabatta, traditional sourdough, sunflower dark rye, and challah. Their baked goods include coffee cake, raisin bran scone, cinnamon roll, grapefruit poppyseed loaf cake, a savory morning bun, and a blueberry orange scone.
Patisserie Tomoko
Patisserie Tomoko is located in an unassuming part of Williamsburg, a block away from McCarren Park and across the street from the famed pasta spot, Lilia. This Japanese bakery is innovative and elevated: they’re always searching for new and creative combinations of flavors and desserts. Their chef, Tomoko Kato, has trained in culinary schools in the United States and Japan, specializing in French pastries and desserts.
The goods: Tomoko sells macarons (green. Tea, black sesame, yuzu, coffee, rose, lavender mint, earl grey, etc.), cookies, mochi, yuzu mousse cake, berry tarts, chocolate banana tarts, Mille crepes, and salty caramel nut tarts, to name a few.
Bien Cuit
Located in Cobble Hill and Crown Heights, Bien Cuit was opened in 2011 by Zachary Golper, who has extensive experience working with famous bakeries all over the world. Their bakeries serve an assortment of coffee drinks, pastries, sandwiches, tartines, and quiches.
The goods: Bien Cuit’s bread includes a traditional French Campagne, Miche (their signature loaf that combines a blend of rye and wheat flours and a whole grain sourdough starter), multi-grain, and preserved lemon focaccia. Their desserts include croissants, danishes, bread pudding, lemon earl grey pound cake, and salted chocolate buckwheat cookies.
Win Son Bakery
Ever since Win Son came to Williamsburg in 2016, and the bakery in 2019, the block has been packed with people coming to and from. The Taiwanese bakery was opened by Josh Ku and Trigg Brown, initially as a neighborhood sandwich shop of sorts. Let’s just say the ever-bustling counter-service café has exceeded expectations. The space is bright and modern with white subway tiles, plants, and a mix of marble and wooden tables for ample indoor seating.
The goods: Win Son Bakery serves gāodian, or pastries, like millet mochi donuts, fermented red rice donuts, red date cakes, bolo baos, and toffee chocolate chip cookies. They also serve fan tuan (stuffed sticky rice rolls), egg sandwiches on milk buns, fried chicken sandwiches, and burgers.
Nick + Sons Bakery
Nick + Sons may just be Williamsburg’s best-kept secret. The neighborhood is notorious for churning out new restaurants and cafes that promise buzz, glamour, or innovative flavors. But Nick + Sons, opened by Nicholas Heavican in 2018, is a hole-in-the-wall, neighborhood bakery filled with authenticity. The bakery is efficient, simple, and oh-so-tasty.
The goods: They serve an apple tart, baguettes, an array of truly exceptional croissants, Danish rye bread, Einkorn sourdough, vegan chocolate chip cookies, and a seeded sourdough loaf.
Molly Wilcox is a New York based writer with a passion for travel and food. When she’s not reading and writing, she’s usually biking around New York City in search of new flavors and sites. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Architectural Digest, Cultured Mag, SFGate, Salon, Observer, and V Magazine, among others. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mol_wilcox
