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A piece of white cake layered with white cream topped with halved raspberries on a small gold tray.
Marc Heu, at Selby and Dale.
Justine Jones

11 Can’t-Miss Bakeries in the Twin Cities

The sweetest spots for croissants, tarts, and fresh-baked bread

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Marc Heu, at Selby and Dale.
| Justine Jones

In a way, Minneapolis was built on baking: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the rushing Mississippi River powered nascent mills like Gold Medal and Pillsbury, which have since become some of the biggest names in flour. Minnesota is the home of Betty Crocker, too — but we’ve come a long way since the days of the first boxed cake mixes. Some of the metro’s best bakeries are family-run spots that have been churning out egg custard tarts, chocolate croissants, and jammy fruit pies for decades, and in recent years, a crop of artisanal bakeries and patisseries have added serious talent to the Mill City scene. Here are 11 great bakeries to try around the Twin Cities.

Note that these restaurants are listed geographically.

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Marc Heu Patisserie Paris

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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.

Madeleines in a baking tray.
Madeleines at Marc Heu.
Marc Heu Patisserie Paris

Brake Bread

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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.

La Boulangerie Marguerite

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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. 

Shelves of pastries on metal trays.
A selection of pastries at La Boulangerie Marguerite.
La Boulangerie Marguerite

Laune Bread

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These breads — naturally leavened with a sourdough culture — are made with 60 percent or more whole grain flour, which gives them an earthy, nutty bite. But don’t zip past the pastry case on the hunt for a loaf. The mandarin-spiced morning buns, pecan bear claws, and rye brownies are the perfect sweet morning snack.

A loaf of sourdough with two slices cut off.
This bread is made with more than 60 percent whole grains.
Laune Bread

Atuvava Bakery

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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.

Three loaves of bread on a striped cloth.
Atuvava, a newcomer in Minneapolis’s Standish neighborhood.
Atuvava Bakery

Panaderia San Miguel

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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.

Sun Street Breads

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Although Solveig Tofte’s baking experience has spanned the world, her Minneapolis shop focuses on imbuing a distinctly American vibe with breads and pastries she crafts from scratch — like a pan loaf homage to the flax, durum, and potatoes grown in the Red River Valley, a farming region in Northwest Minnesota; a rustic, country-style loaf made from local cornmeal; or croissants finished like soft pretzels, which yield a distinctly rich and nutty taste. More ‘traditional’ pastries from Tofte’s heritage are also offered, such as fyrstekake, a type of shortbread cake filled with chopped almonds and cardamom.

Patisserie 46

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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. 

John Kraus is the mastermind behind Patisserie 46.
Patisserie 46

Black Walnut Bakery

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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. 

Almond croissants at Black Walnut Bakery.
Black Walnut Bakery

Cafe Ceres

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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.

An assortment of pastries on wooden blocks on a white counter behind glass.
The morning spread at Café Cerés.
Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Honey & Rye Bakehouse

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Honey & Rye’s newly expanded St. Louis Park bakehouse has paved the way for a bigger-than-ever menu of chocolate malt babka, corn cakes with coconut mousse, and pickle ranch foccacia, to name a few. Anne Andrus’s staple ham and cheese sandwiches and glossy croissants are available right down the road, at Honey & Rye’s original location.

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Marc Heu Patisserie Paris

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.

Madeleines in a baking tray.
Madeleines at Marc Heu.
Marc Heu Patisserie Paris

Brake Bread

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.

La Boulangerie Marguerite

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. 

Shelves of pastries on metal trays.
A selection of pastries at La Boulangerie Marguerite.
La Boulangerie Marguerite

Laune Bread

These breads — naturally leavened with a sourdough culture — are made with 60 percent or more whole grain flour, which gives them an earthy, nutty bite. But don’t zip past the pastry case on the hunt for a loaf. The mandarin-spiced morning buns, pecan bear claws, and rye brownies are the perfect sweet morning snack.

A loaf of sourdough with two slices cut off.
This bread is made with more than 60 percent whole grains.
Laune Bread

Atuvava Bakery

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.

Three loaves of bread on a striped cloth.
Atuvava, a newcomer in Minneapolis’s Standish neighborhood.
Atuvava Bakery

Panaderia San Miguel

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.

Sun Street Breads

Although Solveig Tofte’s baking experience has spanned the world, her Minneapolis shop focuses on imbuing a distinctly American vibe with breads and pastries she crafts from scratch — like a pan loaf homage to the flax, durum, and potatoes grown in the Red River Valley, a farming region in Northwest Minnesota; a rustic, country-style loaf made from local cornmeal; or croissants finished like soft pretzels, which yield a distinctly rich and nutty taste. More ‘traditional’ pastries from Tofte’s heritage are also offered, such as fyrstekake, a type of shortbread cake filled with chopped almonds and cardamom.

Patisserie 46

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. 

John Kraus is the mastermind behind Patisserie 46.
Patisserie 46

Black Walnut Bakery

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. 

Almond croissants at Black Walnut Bakery.
Black Walnut Bakery

Cafe Ceres

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.

An assortment of pastries on wooden blocks on a white counter behind glass.
The morning spread at Café Cerés.
Tim Evans/Eater Twin Cities

Honey & Rye Bakehouse

Honey & Rye’s newly expanded St. Louis Park bakehouse has paved the way for a bigger-than-ever menu of chocolate malt babka, corn cakes with coconut mousse, and pickle ranch foccacia, to name a few. Anne Andrus’s staple ham and cheese sandwiches and glossy croissants are available right down the road, at Honey & Rye’s original location.

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