The New York Times has crowned 22 bakeries as “the best bakeries across the U.S. right now,” with California earning three coveted spots — two in Southern California, and one in the Bay Area. The national recognition makes sense, as the country is in the midst of a bakery renaissance due to post-pandemic restaurant changes, a shift in diners’ tastes and economics, plus social media marketing power, wrote the Times.
Healdsburg bakery Quail & Condor was the sole Bay Area bakery recognized on the list. Melissa Yanc and Sean McGaughey, both alumni of three-Michelin-starred SingleThread, sold their baked goods at farmers markets and pop-ups before opening Quail & Condor in late 2020 to quick success. The bakery has now grown so popular that it’s set to move to a larger space just around the corner from its current digs soon. The Times praised the bakery’s “luscious chocolate Champagne cakes, sourdough smacked with tang and pastries with lamination close to translucent,” as well as its bread program.
Down in Southern California, the New York Times highlighted Bakers Bench in Los Angeles. Jennifer Yee first launched her vegan viennoiserie as a kiosk in a Chinatown strip mall before opening her brick-and-mortar in the Victor Heights area of Echo Park in June this year. The Times praised Yee’s croissants as well as her Danishes filled with fruit from the Santa Monica farmers markets. Yee has “raised expectations on what bakers can achieve with nondairy butter: everything!” wrote the Times.
The Times also honored Gusto Bread in Long Beach. What started as an underground bakery selling loaves of bread from a converted home living room became a storefront in Long Beach in September 2020. Arturo Enciso and Ana Belén Salatino offer creative conchas, multigrain breads and seasonal pastries informed by Mexican and Indigenous traditions. Take the Nixtamal Queen, for example: a spin on the kouign-amann made with sourdough and nixtamalized corn.
Other bakeries on the list spanned the map, from New York City to South Dakota to Seattle.
