Paris-trained (at a 300-year old patisserie) Marc Heu, who is of Hmong descent, left France for St. Paul, where he started his namesake bakery and brought over the kind of intricate wizardry commonly found in only the most storied of pastry ateliers. Some of his finest creations, such as vanilla Saint Honoré, are sculpted with an accordion-like symmetry; others, such as isaphan (a nod to Heu’s idol, Pierre Hermé) and several of his viennoiseries, are appealingly furled. Even his “craggier” offerings, like a rich and eggy flan, are not to be missed.

Brake Bread may be best known for hiking its subscription loaves and pastries all across St. Paul, via bike. But co-owners Micah Taylor and Nate Houge also operate a sunny retail spot on St. Paul’s West Seventh Street. Swing by to grab a luscious oat porridge loaf or a cheddar sourdough studded with jalapenos — Brake Bread sources its wheat from farms around Minnesota and North Dakota. The bakery serves pastries too, like cardamon spinners and brioche buns oozing raspberry pastry cream.

Few places can make a name with both croissants and old-fashioned doughnuts — but La Boulangerie Marguerite can. Francois and Melissa Kiemde raised the bar on an already solid pastry program with an ample array of new patisseries, viennoiseries, and cakes when they rebranded the bakery from P.J. Murphy’s, which had a more homespun vibe. This classic croissant, based on a 30-year old recipe, remains a standout for its denser-than-expected, but still delightfully flaky, quality. 

Atuvava in south Minneapolis is the newest gluten-free bakery on the scene. Alex Ellison’s cinnamon rolls, swimming in tins of silky vanilla icing, have drawn lines since Atuvava’s spring opening — not to mention her flaky galettes and craggy muffins with bits of strawberry and peach peeking through. Atuvava serves an impressively airy gluten-free baguette, too, and an assortment of other loaves and buns.

Grab a tray and wind your way through Panaderia San Miguel, owned by Beatriz and Miguel Rubio, one of Lake Street’s standout destinations for Mexican pan dulces and pasteles. Favorites here are the conchas (crackly, delicately sweet, and puffed to the size of grapefruits), the fluffy raised doughnuts stuffed with a subtly sweet rice pudding, and the tres leches. Pastries here are baked daily and tend to sell out.

Kentucky-native, London-trained pastry chef John Kraus is several things — lauded chocolatier, former instructor at the French Pastry School in Chicago, and a one-time team captain representing the United States at the Coupe Du Monde de la Patisserie, the famed Olympics of pastry competitions. But he’s a baker at heart. Now, he presides over the Bread Lab, a production and training facility, while running both Patisserie 46 and its newer outpost, Rose Street, with his wife Elizabeth. All a roundabout way of saying that his breads — like a stellar miche and a unique baguette, made with a combination of rye and wheat flour — are flawlessly constructed. As are the kaleidoscope of cakes and confections on offer. 

It’s not just the vaunted kouign amann — buttery with an armor of caramelized gloss — that makes Black Walnut so iconic. Everything on its menu lures us back. There’s a cassis vanilla Bavarian cake, layered with an airy chiffon sponge and an intense ganache. There are radiant lemon tarts and, of course, croissants, which are consistently flaky across both sweet and savory offerings. Custom-order cakes, sized up to nine inches, are recommended for special occasions. 

Pastry chef Shawn McKenzie, who has run some of the Twin Cities’ finest pastry programs, recently garnered a James Beard nomination for her work at Café Cerés. Her chocolate zephyr cookies, made with rye flour, have a subtle malty bite; her pistachio croissants strike a perfect balance of airiness and nuttiness; and her pillowy Turkish bagels — a.k.a. simit — are lovely with a cool smear of labneh and za’atar. The lunch menu complements the pastry selection with Muffulettas, falafel bowls, and Turkish egg tartines drizzled with chili oil.