Independent bakeries have boomed since the onset of the pandemic and this year they continued to proliferate around bakers’ hyperspecific visions, as my colleague Bettina Makalintal has noted. The most compelling examples we scouted around the country this year — part of our regional research for Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2025 list, dropping next week — draw influences from personal histories and cultural foodways to create reflective interpretations of traditional and nontraditional pastries.

At the intersections of these unique pie charts: sweet and savory renditions that feel endlessly inviting, like bao filled with Spam or Japanese potato salad alongside mango ‘ulu bread and POG layer cake in Hawai‘i, or flatbreads like malfouf safeha and potato fatayer that speak to a pastry chef’s hometown in the occupied Golan Heights territory. The throughline remains personal narrative baking, which can shape the way a pastry tastes, the story it tells, and the impact it leaves. Pastry chefs now fearlessly lay it all out on the table — then knead it into something great. Below, find some of the bakeries we could not stop thinking and talking about in 2025.

Berlu

Portland, Oregon

Chef Vince Nguyen resurrected Berlu bakery and cafe in Portland, Oregon, in June 2025 after relocating to a brighter space, bringing with him its kaleidoscopic slate of Vietnamese diasporic dishes that the city has clamored for since Berlu first transformed into a bakery pop-up in 2020. Though Nguyen’s original Berlu restaurant focused on deft fine dining interpretations, the bakery revival has leaned into casual daytime dining with pastries such as its instantly iconic, finely corrugated pandan bánh bò nướng, whose muted color belies its intensely earthy flavor. The coconut egg custard tart, crowned with a shaggy layer of salted egg yolk, is among the high-impact savory options on a menu that also includes pork belly and shrimp bún with roasted chicken broth and, as an erstwhile special, a BEC bánh xèo, which takes a bacon-egg-and-cheese approach to a Vietnamese crepe made with turmeric, coconut milk powder, and rice flour. Don’t sleep on the bánh khoai mì nướng, a play on pineapple upside-down cake that gets a warm hit of cardamom and a mochi-like texture from cassava and mungbean, or the even headier clove canelé, which makes a perfect pocket treat to go. — NF

Majdal

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

At Majdal Bakery in Philadelphia, owner Kenan Rabah presents safeha, fatayer, basbousa, and other treats that draw on his hometown of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, a region of Syria that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Here, he presents dishes inextricable from a history of political conflict in new ways, introducing them to some Philadelphians and bringing back familiar flavors to others. Rabah, who moved to the United States in 2015 and previously baked at the city’s Lost Bread Co., serves flatbreads with kashkawan cheese and halloumi, as well as pockets of dough encasing sumac chicken, brightened with a dunk in the bakery’s tart secret sauce. Pear fenugreek basbousa is an exercise in balance, with labneh cremeaux rounding out the coarse texture and sweetness of syrup-soaked semolina cake, while tahini babka muffins evoke the nostalgia of nut butter sandwiches. With old pictures of Rabah’s family and hometown lining the walls, the small, bright space instantly charms and welcomes its visitors — after all, the best bakeries always feel a little like home. — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter

Mille Fête

Honolulu, Hawai‘i

There’s no shortage of outstanding bakeries in Honolulu, but Mille Fête still makes its mark. Katherine Yang and Robynne Maii balance innovation and nostalgia in classic pastries and modern reinventions, celebrating the legacy of Asian American bakeries and restaurants in Honolulu’s Chinatown amid ongoing gentrification. Yang borrows from her Taiwanese heritage, bringing flaky, difficult-to-find pastries like the Taiwanese taiyang, or sunshine pastry, to the U.S., and blending tropical, locally grown fruits like calamansi into very delicate spritz cookies. Maii and Yang’s reputation precedes them — television personality Gail Simmons has even backed the woman-of-color-owned bakery. A muted, minimalist interior initially feels unassuming but shelves filled with roasted pineapple coffee cakes, kimchi Reuben hand pies, baked Spam bao with Chinese mustard (a nod to Honolulu’s erstwhile, beloved Pineapple Room), and mango ‘ulu bread illustrate the team’s regard for local traditions and unconventional approaches, as well as its ongoing love affair with all things sweet and divine. — Kayla Stewart, senior editor

Not A Bakery

Portland, Maine

Georgia Macon found a sweet home when she moved to Portland, Maine, from St. Louis during the pandemic. The pastry chef quickly rose through the ranks within Prentice Hospitality Group, which includes restaurants like the Good Table and Twelve. After creating a local following for baked goods at the latter, Macon and other pastry chefs from the lauded restaurant launched a food truck — not a bakery — near the restaurant, offering a range of pastries inspired by Macon’s time in France, memories of her grandmother, a reverence for Southern cooking, and a love for the baking traditions of her newfound New England home. At the truck, which sits just in front of the Portland Harbor, sweets run the gamut. An abundance of rolls stands out — cinnamon buns swirled with cream cheese, and round pastries sprinkled with sesame seeds and filled with gently spiced sausages, a takeaway from Macon’s time in New Zealand. There’s also a whole selection of croissants both savory and sweet: ham and Gruyere, turkey with provolone, pecan praline. Seasonal produce ensures the menu rotates regularly, but pepper jelly, cornflake crispy treats, and a wide range of other nostalgic baked goods remain constants. — KS

Santa Canela

Los Angeles, California

Pastry chef Ellen Ramos draws from her Northeast Los Angeles childhood, as well as her family’s Salvadoran and Mexican roots, for her unmissable Highland Park bakery, Santa Canela. An El Sereno, California, native, Ramos felt inspired to produce more personal pastries after being encouraged at local Los Angeles restaurants where she worked as pastry chef, including Frogtown’s Loreto. Santa Canela, as a result, feels distinctly Angeleno even as it might fit aesthetically into a tucked-away avenida in Mexico City. Find orange blossom conchas, savory daytime fare such as a behemoth kale and cured beef sandwich on fresh focaccia, and Ramos’s signature dessert: an “LA”-shaped churro, which pairs beautifully with a cafe de olla latte. Ramos brings her lifelong love of Los Angeles doughnuts to the bakery, too, with a champurrado maple doughnut bar on display in the sleek, sand-toned, minimalist space. The acute sense of style, merged with Ramos’s personal history, makes this slice of pastry nirvana feel like the future of Los Angeles bakeries. — *Mona Holmes, editor, Southern California/Southwest *