When thinking of New York’s bakeries, the first thing that comes to mind is the unusually bright colored cakes with exaggerated, mouth-watering whipped-cream topping all over. But the aesthetic of the most recently opened spots is very different: dreamier, pastel colored, fine designed. In short, they try to put their cultural heritage in a more Instagram-like way.
Here is a list of the latest openings in New York City.
Manhattan:
Last July, the icy winds of Northern Europe brought fresh openings to give a break from the unbearable heat to the people living in the East Village. Next door to their first restaurant, Smør’s team expanded their menu with a dedicated bakery. Savory loaded sandwiches and sweet soft buns try to rewrite the Scandinavian traditions with the help of creamy sauces.
From Lucie is a declaration of love for the French countryside, where the owner and founder of the bakery Lucie Franc de Ferrière was born and raised. She was taught how to bake by her mother in their Bordeaux kitchen, and she has been sharing her cakes on her Instagram since she moved to New York City around 2020. Now the photos of her delicate creations decorated with flowers and pastel-colored toppings are seen by more than 85K followers and even more clients can find and taste them at her bakery in the East Village.
Next to the Flatiron Building, you’ll find there an elegant pastry gallery-boutique that was opened at the beginning of last summer by chef Eunji Lee. Lysée’s pastries are real works of art, blending three cultures in a modern shape: Korea, where the pastry chef comes from, France, where she improved her art, and New York City, where she opened her first bakery. If you have not tasted them yet, visit them for their super fluffy brioches, innovative flavored shortbreads and perfectly symmetrical pains au chocolat.
“We are a Third Culture Bakery. NYC’s first Bahraini owned bakery located in the heart of Cooper Square”. Combining different heritages Librae Bakery offers a variety of Middle Eastern flavors: from the spicy cookies, like the Ma’amoul made with semolina flour, ghee, dates, fennel seeds and lemon, to the sweet and intense croissants, like the B&W Halvah Chocolate made with black and white sesame seeds, halvah, cardamom, dark chocolate. To celebrate the end of Ramadan they are organizing a dinner in collaboration with Platform by the James Beard Foundation, presenting their own reinvented menu.
Angelina Paris, founded in 1903 in the city of love, has opened a bakery on Lexington Avenue and East 78th Street — their second location in the greatest city on earth. Founded 120 years ago by confectioner Antoine Rumpelmayer, and named after his daughter-in-law according to their website, the bakery has long been renown for its high-end clientele attracted to their elegant pastries. Angelina is most known for their famous Mont-Blanc, a mix of meringue, cream and chestnut paste vermicelli, and their signature, and pricy, old-fashioned hot chocolate.
Queens:
Among the Mandarin signs and the sight-seeing benches, you can find Gonggan, one of the newest Korean dessert shops in Downtown Flushing. Two floors high with aesthetic interiors, opened last January 10, “Gonggan articulates and expresses all our cultural experiences and inspirations from Korea and New York”, as its founders wrote on Instagram. So if coffee drinks are usually black, here they look like tropical cocktails, all colored and fruity. The same is for the croissants with Instagrammable creamy toppings. The clients are especially young.
Brooklyn:
There is not a single person in New York that has not seen on their Instagram feed the Petite Croissant Céréale by L’Appartement 4F at least once. They are not the only baked gems that you can find in Brooklyn Heights, where the spot was launched a year ago, on May 14, ‘22, by the Coiffards, Gautier and Ashley. They make traditional French sweet and savory croissants and pain au chocolat, but also ham-and-cheese baguettes and American style cookies.
After a year of wandering through pop-ups around the city, she finally opened a permanent storefront in Gowanus, Brooklyn. At By Clio Bakery you can have a slice of their selected tarts, which change monthly, and try “whatever happens to be coming out of the kitchen”. But Clio Goodman, the owner, is better known for her custom creations: very appealing, covered in blooming flowers.
