Get Your Pastry Fix at These Local Bakeries and Cafes

Boulangerie Christophe

The breakfast pastries here are lovely—apricot-topped croissants, turnovers with chocolate and pastry cream—and so are the filament-thin crepes, which come with sugar and berries, Nutella, or savory fillings.

Bread Furst

Mark Furstenburg’s Van Ness bakery quietly serves some of the city’s best bagels (the smaller, skinnier Montreal style) and doughnuts (we’re fans of the passionfruit). Morning sandwiches include ham and cheese on a biscuit or baguette.

Mah-Ze-Dahr

This elegant New York–born chainlet specializes in scones (Oprah’s a fan) and croissants, which are excellent plain, filled with turkey and Gruyère, or turned into sticky, pull-apart monkey bread.

Manifest Bread

Restaurant vets Rick and Tyes Cook have built a following for their sourdough loaves made from house-milled grains. But their tiny Riverdale Park bakery de­serves equal attention for its sweet and savory baked goods, including babka, croissants, and onion/poppy-seed bialys.

Rare Bird Coffee Roasters

Not only does this coffee shop roast its own beans, it also bakes its own pastries. Selections rotate, but you’ll want to snag cardamom kouign amann and cinnamon rolls with cream-cheese frosting (weekends only). A standout egg sandwich comes with roasted tomatoes and aged goat cheese on a sourdough biscuit.

Rose Ave Bakery

Rose Nguyen’s doughnuts—pillowy, perfectly sugared, and stuffed with luscious fillings such as passionfruit curd and ube-coconut cream—de­serve every word of the hype that they get. But don’t miss the Woodley Park cafe’s sleeper hit: a square puff-pastry tart layered with savory, creamy squash curry.

Saku Saku Flakerie

Japanese expat Yuri Oberbillig turns out crackly kouign amann and Gruyère-and-za’atar croissants at her spare Tenleytown cafe, Cleveland Park storefront, and National Building Museum outpost. Keep an eye out for monthly specials such as kimchi-and-goat-cheese focaccia.

Sunday Morning Bakehouse

A great jelly doughnut is hard to find, unless you’re at this chic Pike & Rose cafe. (The sugared brioche doughnut is pretty great, too.) Our other favorite wake-up: a ham-and-cheese croissant and an expertly made London fog.

Un Je Ne Sais Quoi

Walk into this bright French cafe and you’re greeted with shelves holding beautifully baked croissants (the almond and pistachio-and-chocolate versions are our go-tos), along with sugared orbs of brioche. A recent discovery: pots of intensely fruity, not-too-sweet French jam, which goes perfectly with a plain croissant and will jazz up your toast at home.

This article appears in the October 2023 issue of Washingtonian.