Every sweet tooth needs more than one favorite bakery. The Bay Area boasts lots of legacy and specialty shops, but this is a culinary niche that always has room for more. Over this past year, we’ve discovered new bakeries, expansion shops, hidden gems and home bakers who decided to turn their talents into a business and share their recipes with us. The array is impressive, from beignets to meringues, plus new croissants, cookies, tarts and cheesecakes. Ready to indulge? Here’s a sampling of our discoveries:
Preligen’s Artisan Bakery, San Jose
Baker-owner Preligen Manaois specializes in croissants and other French pastries at Preligen’s Artisan Bakery in San Jose’s Willow Glen area. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Drive by the corner of Meridian and Hamilton avenues around 3 a.m. and you’ll see one shop with the lights on. That’s the bright promise of freshly baked croissants, danish, muffins, scones, cookies — dozens and dozens of them that will be ready by the 7 a.m. bakery opening.
Owner and pastry chef Preligen Manaois and his fellow baker start proofing the dough for the croissants at that hour at his eponymous shop. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy (and before that, Mountain View High), Manaois learned both savory and sweet skills but fell hard for pastry when he moved to Las Vegas and saw the World Pastry Cup creations made by a mentor, the noted Patrice Caillot. “I was just like, ‘Wow!’,” Manaois recalls. He became a Silicon Valley corporate pastry chef, then decided to open his own French-style artisanal bakery,
Finely crafted desserts like the Valrhona Chocolate Dome provide the “wow” factor at Preligen’s. However, the flaky, buttery croissants — traditional, chocolate, almond and ham-and-cheese — are the bestsellers that receive raves every morning.
Manaois is ready to offer new flavors and more seasonal pastries. “I do want to change it up,” he says. “But there’s only so much space in the dessert case.” So customers should look for weekly rotations, he says — maybe the lemon meringue tart one week, a passionfruit tart the week after and banana creme the next week.
For autumn and Halloween, he’s featuring a pear tart and pumpkin cheesecake. For Christmas, he’s planning to make the classic French holiday dessert his fans have already started requesting, Buche de Noel.
Details: Along with baked goods, Preligen’s serves locally roasted Chromatic Coffee. 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursdays-Mondays (closed Tuesdays-Wednesdays), 1597 Meridian Ave., San Jose; preligen.com
Wingen Bakery & Restaurant, Livermore
Wingen Bakery & Restaurant expanded in 2025 with new space, hours and menu offerings in Livermore. (Francesca Penko Photography)
It used to be, you knew you were starting the day off right by ordering something tasty from Aimee and Bryan Wingen’s ovens. Now you can end the day right, too, thanks to Wingen Bakery’s expansion into a full-service restaurant with primo dessert options.
A renovation completed this spring gave the shop 50 indoor seats (plus 20 more on the patio) and the feel of a European bistro, with the comfort of an American diner. There’s also a window into the “bread room,” so customers can watch bakers mixing loaves of sourdough while they wait for their bread to be sliced or their lattes to steam.
Wingen Bakery & Restaurant expanded in 2025 with new space, hours and menu offerings in Livermore. (Courtesy of Aimee Wingen)
All the breakfast favorites are still here, from chocolate croissants to cinnamon twists to savory kouign amann. For brunch, there’s now a French toast made with in-house milk bread and seasonal fruit and (on weekends) biscuits and gravy and “Egg McWingens,” a play on the McDonald’s classic, plus squeezed juices and refreshing cocktails.
For the new dinner service, diners might try tiramisu made with Four Barrel espresso or a brown-butter chocolate-chip ice-cream sandwich – or throw the diet completely out the window with decadent Basque cheesecake. Gluten-free options are plentiful, from polenta cake to fresh-fruit granita.
Related Articles
Bay Area restaurants, food trucks, announce free meals for SNAP recipients
Gwyneth Paltrow brings her healthy Goop Kitchen meals to the Bay Area
Gobble up these turkeys at Los Gatos eateries
California’s 2025 commercial Dungeness crab season delayed to protect whales
Kasper’s, the hot dog that ‘started it all’ in Oakland, is no more
“Although we have expanded into dinner service … our roots remain strong in pastry, coffee and breakfast offerings,” Aimee Wingen says. “You can even grab an espresso after dinner or a pastry or loaf to take home for the morning, if we haven’t sold out for the day.”
Details: 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (cafe and coffee shop) and 4:30-10 p.m. (dinner) Wednesdays-Sundays, 50 South Livermore Ave., Livermore; wingenbakery.com
Piccolo Spuntino, Colma
Adam Davila and Lisa Hernandez, the couple behind the new Colma bakery Piccolo Spuntino (meaning “small snack” in Italian) serve up coffee, cookies and loaf cakes from their cozy storefront. (Kate Bradshaw/Bay Area News Group)
Lisa Hernandez grew up in San Francisco’s vintage baking world — in fact, her parents met at Bay Area’s former Hostess bakery in San Francisco. (It was love at first sight, at least for her dad, who identified her mom as the woman he would marry upon seeing her, according to family lore, she says.)
Growing up, her dad helped her overcome her fear of ovens: She has memories of him helping her pull chocolate chip cookies out of the oven, and she still uses his banana loaf bread recipe. As the years passed, she pursued an art degree and went on to attend the California Culinary Academy and to build up a business as a custom cookie decorator.
It wasn’t until a few years ago, as her husband, Adam Davila, prepared for retirement, that the couple considered opening up their own bakery. The Daly City couple saw the potential in a former garage next to a smog shop, which they converted into their bakery. It took years to fix up, but they opened their cozy storefront about three months ago and called it Piccolo Spuntino, which means “little snack” in Italian.
Today, Davila is the shop’s barista (and whips up an excellent, frothy cappuccino) while Hernandez bakes up a selection of classic cookies, like Italian swirl cookies, Russian tea cookies and custom-decorated cookies – popular styles include those with 49ers and Valkyries decorations, Hernandez says. Loaf cakes are also on the menu, with flavors that change based on the season and customers’ ideas.
Details: 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 7687 El Camino Real, Colma.
Model Bakery, Walnut Creek
The espresso double chocolate cookie and molasses ginger cookie are hard to resist at Model Bakery in Walnut Creek. (Photo by Aretha Deng)
It only took one year, but Model Bakery’s newest location in downtown Walnut Creek has already matched the daily sales number of its original location in St. Helena.
While they’re famous for their buttery-fried English muffins that taste almost like a fluffy jelly donut without the filling, the bakery is full of delicious goodies. Owner Sarah Mitchell Hansen said the cookies are among the hottest items, and we’re all-in on the soft and gooey molasses ginger cookie that would top even the best gingerbread cookies this holiday season.
The WC location is also open for lunch and dinner, with sandwiches like a smash burger and fried chicken, all served on the famous English muffins.
Details: 6 a.m.-8:30 p.m. daily, 1315 N. Main St., Walnut Creek; themodelbakery.com
Gu-eum Cake & Bakery, Saratoga
The strawberry sponge cake and sweet potato sponge cake at Gu-eum Cake & Bakery in Saratoga are swoon-worthy. (Photo by Aretha Deng)
Maybe it’s a regular old Sunday, and you’re craving a slice of cake that would put even the best wedding cakes to the test. The steady flow of drooling customers at the family-owned Gu-eum Cake & Bakery in Saratoga may feel similarly, as they’re walking out of there with boxes full of Korean-cafe-inspired cake slices, priced between $9 and $12 each.
They’re worth it, folks. The sponge is expertly crafted, fluffy and delicate — and covered in a butter cream that doesn’t go too hard on the butter. We tried the strawberry (so fresh) and Korean sweet potato, and the flavors were delightful. Every bite felt like a bit of luxury. Also popular is the Injeolmi cake, a crumble cake topped with soybean powder with added soybean crumbles inside.
Another recommendation: Don’t sleep on the plump and flavorful madeleines ($5).
Details: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays, 18566 Prospect Road, Saratoga; gueumcakebakery.com
Cafe Brusco, Berkeley
Some of the bagel sandwiches served at Cafe Brusco in Berkeley include the Gold Standard (bottom left), made with smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, red onion, capers, dill and lemon; the Turkey Deluxe, made with roasted turkey, herb cream cheese, mustard, avocado, tomato and red onion; the Brusco, featuring pork pistachio mortadella, Calabrian cream cheese, honey and pickled peppers. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Even before The New York Times crowned Rose Pizzeria one of the best slice joints in America in 2024, it was locally beloved for its hot and tasty pies. Now owners Alexis Rorabaugh and Gerad Gobel are putting their pizza ovens to another use: baking bagels for their new shop down the street, Cafe Brusco.
“Bagel dough and pizza dough are different — but yet similar — in processes. So we figured, ‘Why not?’,” says Rorabaugh, who with husband Gobel, has worked at San Francisco’s James Beard award-winning Bar Agricole (now closed) and buzzy Italian restaurant, Delfina.
“We wanted to make something fun for people to enjoy,” Rorabaugh explains. “We really want people to mix-and-match with the halves of bagels and toppings — it’s just a little something different to offer them.”
Customer Elin Chee takes a to-go order of Brusco bagel made with pork pistachio mortadella, Calabrian cream cheese, honey and pickled peppers at Cafe Brusco in Berkeley on Oct. 22, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The bagels here are boiled and baked and come as Plain, Everything, Sesame and Fennel-and-Orange. Like Rose’s Pizzeria, the dough uses stone-milled flour from Cairnspring Mills in Washington. Customers can order in whole or half portions. Preconfigured toppings include the Gold Standard (smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, lemon), the Summer Girl (burrata, grated tomato) and the Brusco (Calabrian cream cheese, pistachio mortadella, honey).
Of course, one might just order a bagel with a schmear and perhaps fig jam. There is also a rotating pastry selection from Good Luck Bakery from Wednesdays to Saturdays and strong java from Counter Culture Coffee.
Details: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays, 2000 University Ave., Berkeley; cafebrusco.com
Topi Cakes, Palo Alto
Tiffany Xing and Ivy Ling, who are friends from college, recently soft-opened Topi Cakes, a bakery specializing in elegant box cakes with Asian-inspired flavors, in Palo Alto. (Kate Bradshaw/Bay Area News Group)
College friends Tiffany Xing and Ivy Ling have opened up an elegant new bakery in the former location of Shekoh Confections in Palo Alto.
Their shop, Topi Cakes, opened Oct. 8 and serves up carefully decorated cakes and desserts like matcha Basque cheesecake, pumpkin mousse and mango cream cheese-stuffed scones. Flavors rotate regularly, and the current seasonal cake offering is a 3-inch chestnut cake, according to Ling.
Their recipes tend to use less sugar than other bakeries’, and they use organic fruit, she adds. “It is a bit healthier than other bakeries,” she says.
Among the most popular items so far are the jasmine green tea cake ($14.25) and soy milk box cake ($8.50), she says. The two bakers also do custom orders, including special occasion and wedding cakes, and they’re planning to offer DIY classes and workshops.
Details: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays and 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays-Sundays, 2305 El Camino Real B, Palo Alto; topicakes.com
Starter Bakery, Albany
Starter Bakery, with its newest location in Albany, offers a rotation of specialty kouign amann flavors like coconut cream. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Baker-owner Brian Wood, the Bay Area’s king of kouign amann, has just expanded his Oakland bakery’s sweet offerings to another East Bay neighborhood. The second Starter Bakery Cafe opened over the weekend in Albany.
Like the Rockridge cafe, this one features hearth-baked and brioche-style breads, quiche, cookies, pies and those buttery, caramelly “croissant cousins” — the original kouign amann and rotating artisanal flavors like hazelnut, fresh blueberry with lemon curd and fresh strawberry with pistachio frangipane. The seasonal flavor right now is pear caramel.
But there’s more: Wood and team have created a Solano Avenue exclusive, beignet doughnuts. There are three versions: the original, dusted in sugar; a chocolate filled option; and one filled with a passionfruit curd.
This cafe accommodates 22 customers inside for breakfast, lunch or pastries and coffee and 24 on the patio.
If you don’t live near the East Bay locations, you can indulge in Starter Bakery’s kouign amann at all Philz Coffee locations. They’re baked at Wood’s wholesale Berkeley bakery, then delivered fresh daily to the shops.
Details: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays, 1183 Solano Ave., Albany; starterbakery.com
Delice Glace, Redwood City
Bulgarian rose-flavored meringues are hand-piped, then baked in Redwood City by the Delice Glace team. (Courtesy of Paulette Phlipot)
Redwood City resident Azarmeen Pavri’s journey into the world of delicate, precise meringues began back in 2016 with a simple desire: to introduce her young children to the dessert she’d grown up loving as a kid in Pakistan. But when she couldn’t find a good source for the egg-white delicacies, she started making her own.
As a scientist who studied food safety and public health, she says, the precision and attention to detail needed to craft the finicky desserts appealed to her.
“A bakery is very much like a lab,” she says. “Everything has to be controlled.”
Azarmeen Pavri created Delice Glace, a meringue bakery in Redwood City, by drawing on her public health and food safety science background. (Courtesy of Paulette Phlipot)
She quickly realized her meringues tasted better than others on the market, and started doing pop-ups around the area at shops like Williams-Sonoma, selling meringue cakes, then smaller cookie-sized treats. They were initially sold frozen, which is how the business got its name — Delice Glace translates roughly to “delicious frozen treat” in French, and a nod to the treat’s French origins.
After starting initially as a cottage food operator, she switched into wholesale operations in 2019, and was quickly blown away by the demand, especially regionally. She moved into an industrial kitchen and expanded her team, and now sells her meringues via local grocers like Whole Foods, Mollie Stone’s, Sigona’s, Robert’s, Bianchini’s and Draeger’s.
The desserts appear to have resonated with health-conscious customers of the Bay Area, given the “pretty clean” nature of the sweet — they contain no dairy, gluten, butter, shortening or common allergens, she says. “Other than the sugar, there’s really no evil to the meringues,” Pavri says.
And since the bakery operates at the small-batch, artisanal level, she and her small team are able to experiment with seasonal creations, like Christmas wreaths and Easter meringue nests, as well as try new flavor combinations, like lavender, pumpkin spice and Bulgarian rose. Her passionfruit meringues made it to the finals of the Good Food Awards in 2024.
Today, she also ships her products nationwide and is working on expanding availability throughout the West Coast.
Details: Find the full list of Bay Area-based Delice Glace retailers or order online at deliceglace.com.
