Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Best Bakeries

A Baker’s Wife has been a Powderhorn Park staple for over 30 years. While they were bought by the owners of Woullet’s in 2016, their signature old-school cake donuts have remained in the pastry case, plentiful and reasonably-priced. Our favorites are the humble cinnamon-sugar and powdered-sugar versions, and we also recommend throwing in a signature tea cake as a snack for later.

Former architect Aki Berndt shifted his focus towards breadmaking after losing his job in 2009. Namely the rarely seen recipes he missed from his hometown: Mönchengladbach, Germany. Look out for three kinds of rye bread here — one that’s kissed with currants and molasses, one that’s deli-style, and one that’s strewn with sunflower seeds. Germany’s signature take on sourdough (bauernbrot) is also in full effect, along with apple and cherry streusel, a wide array of rolls (spelt, poppy seed, cinnamon-walnut, bacon-cheese-chive… you name it), and the soft pretzels Berndt often bakes for breweries like its Northeast Minneapolis neighbor, Fair State Brewing Cooperative.  

Fans of the James Beard-winning Restaurant Alma had been begging owner Alex Roberts to sell their bread for years. In 2016, he acquiesced, opening the casual Cafe Alma next door to the restaurant. The Café runs a tight pastry and bread program, and while their croissants are second-to-none, you shouldn’t sleep on their gluten-free financiers either. Feeling a little more peckish? Alma serves a more hearty breakfast and lunch menu.  

Their treats can also be found at Alma Provisions, their small-scale outpost on 46th and Bryant near Lake Harriet.

New York native Asa Diebolt wanted to bring the chewy, high-quality bagels he grew up eating to his adopted city of Minneapolis, and we couldn’t be more grateful he did. Asa’s churns out bagels, bialys, and a rotating docket of sourdough breads, all made with locally-milled flour. Stop by their South Minneapolis shop to grab a lox sandwich to go and eat it in nearby Longfellow Gardens.

For years, Black Walnut existed as the pastry supplier of local coffee shops, and devotees of Sarah Botcher’s perfectly-executed croissants, kouign amanns, and espresso shortbreads had to line up early to get their favorites. But in 2019, Botcher opened her Uptown storefront, and expanded the menu to include cakes, tarts, pies, and an egg-and-cheese croissant sandwich that has to be tasted to be believed.

Named for the brakes on the bikes that deliver it, Brake Bread is Saint Paul’s most likeable supplier, running a “bread it forward” program that donates up to 400 loaves a month to local food shelves. The bread, of course, is superlative – naturally leavened and made with love. Our favorite is “Gateway” a pullman-style sandwich bread, and you can pick it up at Brake Bread’s West Seventh location (get a pastry, while you’re there), or at Mississippi Market, which carries their products.

One of the first independent coffee shops to open in Saint Paul (in 1982), Bread & Chocolate has remained a neighborhood staple for decades. Trends come and go, but caramel rolls, oversized chocolate chunk cookies, and comfortingly un-fancy ham and cheese croissants are forever. 

Bread & Chocolate’s sister restaurant, Caffe Latte, is famous for their cakes and conveniently located right across the street. Get a fat slice of their signature Turtle Cake and thank us later. 

Pastry Chef Shawn McKenzie, a 2023 James Beard finalist, knows what the people want: beautiful, delicious, exacting pastry skill with a bit of unexpected flair. McKenzie incorporates Mediterranean flavors like za’atar and tahini into her stunning confections, and her turkey club baguette is sneakily one of the best sandwiches in the Twin Cities.  

Café Ceres has four locations, and each feature beautiful plant life, top-notch coffee, and plenty of places to sit and read and book. 

When Gavin Kaysen’s french restaurant, Bellecour, left Wayzata, customers all wanted to know one thing – where can we still get pastry chef Diane Moua’s crepe cake? Lucky for us, longtime cooking school and kitchen shop Cooks of Crocus Hill stepped in, and Cooks | Bellecour was born. Boasting three locations (Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Edina), Cooks + Bellecour is the only place where you can both get your fix of pastries and pick up the supplies to bake them yourself. Don’t miss the baked goods that earned Moua (who now owns and operates Diane’s Place) a James Beard nomination. 

Don’t try to come between us and our Concha Pan Dulce. The Twin Cities has no shortage of excellent Mexican bakeries (many are wrapped into larger operations, like El Burrito Mercado in Saint Paul), but Bloomington’s El Mariachi will let you order a “random half dozen” pan dulches for the extremely reasonable price of $15. There’s your contribution to the next potluck! 

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bakery set off of St. Louis Park’s busy Excelsior boulevard, Honey and Rye is worth making a U-Turn for. Stop in for a morning bun, coffee cake, or slice of quiche, and grab a baguette or loaf of challah on your way out the door. Honey and Rye also offers a selection of special-order items, including their excellent whole pies.  

If the Saint Paulities proudly wearing Hot Hands’ “Risk it for the Biscuit” sweatshirts around the neighborhood are any indication, this Mac-Groveland bakery has a legion of loyal fans. Biscuits? Got ‘em. Sandwiches? Got ‘em. Sweet pies? Got ‘em. Pot pies? Turnovers? Brownies? Dog treats? Hot Hands has them all. You can even get their top-flight biscuits as “take and bake,” so they’re fresh out of the oven by the time your brunch guests arrive.  

There are cinnamon rolls, and then there are Isles Bun and Coffee cinnamon rolls. These monstrous, delicious, sticky, cream-cheese-frosting-laden behemoths have been inspiring around-the-block lines since 1993. If you can’t quite handle a whole roll yourself (it’s okay, we’re not judging), Isles generously offers “puppy dog tails,” which are made from the off-cuts of their rolls, and spun together to create the perfect Saturday treat.

While it’s no longer known as Swedish Crown Bakery — a change meant to reflect the broader European palate of its pastries — Krown is still the place to go in the greater metro area for Scandinavian delights like cardamom buns, tea rings, Budapest rolls, and fennel-blessed rye bread (a.k.a. kavring). If you’d like a tour of the entire region, co-owners Madison McCormick and Sharaya Mickelson also crank out everything from Icelandic meringues to Finnish almond cookies at their Anoka bakery, along with Friday lunch specials like Swedish meatballs, Irish beef stew, and tunnsbrödrulle (a street food staple that wraps flatbread around a hot dog, mashed potatoes, crispy onions and creamy pickle relish).  

For more Swedish fare within the city limits, keep your eyes on the pastry counter at FIKA Café, which often sells out of its own fresh baked, Stockholm-caliber beauties by the early afternoon.   

Tiff Singh mentored under the Twin Cities best breadmakers at Rustica, Alma, and Sun Street Breads and teamed up with Chris McLeod to open Laune Bread in 2022. Laune’s airy Lake Street location draws big local crowds, and their naturally-leavened loaves all include more than 50% whole wheat flour from Midwest grains (Laune spends 50% of their money in Minnesota, and 25% in neighboring states). 

Laune’s pastry program is also deliciously unique, and Longfellow residents flood the bakery for their hearty whole-wheat croissants, rye-chocolate chip cookies, and a superlative morning bun with mandarin and spice. 

Laune also invests in their community by partnering with urban organizations that support food and education, and through their “bread fund,” which collects donations and provides freshly-baked breads to organizations like Appetite for Change and the Aliveness Project.

Raised in an abandoned cow barn in French Guiana, Marc Heu’s journey to James Beard-nominated pastry chef was anything but ordinary. After moving to Minnesota to be with his wife, Heu opened his eponymous bakery, and the demand was overwhelming. No wonder why, either – Heu’s artistic, exacting, superlatively delicious confections are some of the best our state has to offer, and the bakery often sells out hours after opening. So get there early, and order with abandon. You can always share (your friends are lucky).  

Internationally-acclaimed pastry chef John Kraus (the only American chef to ever be inducted into the prestigious Relais Dessert Group) moved to Minneapolis because he thought it would be a nice place to open a bakery. With the 2010 opening of Patisserie 46, John changed the Twin Cities bakery scene forever. Serving everything from Paris-level baguettes (get there early; they sell out) to humble sour cream coffee cake and too-beautiful-to-eat opera cakes, Patisserie 46 has anchored the Kingfield neighborhood for almost 15 years – and it’s just as popular as the day it opened.  

In 2016, John and his wife/business partner, Elizabeth Rose, opened Saint Paul’s Rose Street Patisserie, and since then they’ve expanded to three new locations, bringing their high-caliber work to the entire Twin Cities Metro region. We couldn’t be more grateful.  

Stop by and sample what Food & Wine magazine declared the “World’s Best Eclairs.”  

What started as a little Southwest Minneapolis shop has grown to become one of the Twin Cities’ most venerable bakeries, inspiring a long legacy of those who trained under founder Steve Horton, including Shawn McKenzie and Tiff Singh. Rustica has been turning out perfect sourdough loaves, flaky kouign amanns, and their famous bittersweet chocolate cookies since 2004, and their bouchons, croissants, and thick slices of banana bread are still as delicious as the day they opened.

Don’t be confused by the name. Savory Bake House, a tiny South Minneapolis walk-up bakery, has both savory and sweet treats. Serving modern takes on comforting classics like smoked gouda and roasted tomato pretzel rolls and blood orange-passion fruit tarts, fans of Savory often line up down Lake Street (in all weather!) to get their fix.

Entirely gluten-free and peanut-free, Sift also has a range of offerings for those who are allergic to dairy, eggs, and soy, although that is not the top reason to visit this adorable South Minneapolis spot. You should go because their baked goods are unequivocally delicious, the donuts, cupcakes, and even scotcheroos (scotcheroos!) reminiscent of Mom’s, but better. Hosting gluten-free friends? Sift kindly sells frozen waffles, pizza crusts, and even bake-at-home pretzels. 

Don’t be fooled by the name — Solveig Tofte’s Sun Street Breads sells way more than just bread (although the bread is always fantastic. Don’t skip the Red River Valley Potato-Flax loaf). An ever-popular breakfast and lunch spot, they also host a weekly pizza night on Thursdays, where you can score a truly expert mozzarella pie for under ten dollars. Join the Southwest Minneapolis crowds and get a box of cinnamon rolls made from croissant dough and sour cherry hand pies, and taste why Tofte has been inducted into the prestigious Club Elte de la Boulangerie Internationale.  

A collective sigh of relief could be heard around the rather chatty social media sphere in 2023 when the owners of Vietnamese restaurant Pho Mai announced they would be breathing life back into the beloved Chinese bakery Keefer Court. Now open in a new location at Eden Prairie’s massive Asia Mall, a little over a year after it abruptly closed in Minneapolis, it specializes in sweet (pineapple, red bean, coconut) and savory (BBQ pork, curry beef, three kinds of tofu) buns and Hong Kong hits like egg tarts, black sesame balls, and durian-flavored pandan cake. 

North Minneapolis’ charming Thirsty Whale sells cupcakes, cookies, and all manner of delectable sweet treats, but their true calling card is their custom cakes. These Instagram-worthy confections are ubiquitous at Minneapolis weddings, birthday parties, and other celebrations where a little dose of sweetness is exactly what the doctor called for.

Don’t be fooled by the unassuming University Avenue store front of Trung Nam – these croissants are some of the flakiest and most buttery in town. Perfect for fans who like their croissant on the softer, chewier side, Trung Nam, which has been holding down the Frogtown neighborhood since 1989, is the only bakery on this list where you can also pick up a bbq pork steam bun and a banh mi.  

Turtle Bread Company opened in 1994, and as trends have changed and tastes have evolved, so has Turtle Bread, but they’ve never lost the homemade, comforting classics that made them famous. With three Minneapolis locations all serving breakfast, lunch, and a full takeout bakery menu, Turtle Bread is the perfect place to bring the whole family for a casual meal or to grab a bag of potato rolls on your way to the cookout. 

After a decade of professional baking in New York City, Rachel Anderson moved to Minneapolis and opened Vikings and Goddesses, a wholesale pie and pastry company that used the finest local ingredients (Baker’s Field Flour and Hope Creamery Butter, anyone?). In 2024, Vikings and Goddesses delighted the Merriam Park neighborhood of Saint Paul by opening a walk-up window, where you can pick up a loaf of their famous croissant bread, limencello tiramisu pie, or frozen Danishes to pop in the freezer as a gift to future you. 

There is maybe no bakery better known in the Twin Cities than Wuollet. Serving up classic treats like maple long johns as well as elaborately decorated princess tortes, Wuollet has seven equally sweet Metro locations. Tap into your inner kid and treat yourself to an Oreo cupcake, or fill up one of Wuollet’s signature red-ribboned boxes and make someone else’s day. 

Need somewhere safe but delicious to bring out-of-town family? Yum! Want to grab a bite on the way to visit your kid at Saint Thomas? Yum! Been assigned to get baked goods for the baby shower? Yum! Patti and Robbie Soskin’s we-know-what-you-want-and-how-you-want-it all-day bakery, café, and restaurant serves a wide menu where every item elicits amn “oh, yeah, that sounds perfect.” With no dish over 20 dollars and the option to grab a mini pumpkin cheesecake on your way out the door, we can’t think of anyone who couldn’t find something to like at Yum!