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This year’s Eater Awards introduced a dedicated category for bakeries, reflecting a surge in creativity and ambition across the country’s small baking scenes. The five winners below—spanning Chicago to Seattle—show how neighborhood pastry shops are shaping local dining culture and why those buttery, flour-dusted moments matter right now.
- Bad Butter (Chicago) — a Bucktown bakery known for twice-baked almond croissants, focaccia with bold seasonality, and long lines since its May 2026 storefront opening.
- Chainsaw (Los Angeles) — a Melrose Hill café that grew from garage supper clubs into a Venezuelan-inflected neighborhood hub, famed for its passionfruit-lime icebox pie.
- Diljān (Brooklyn) — a Brooklyn Heights shop blending Afghan and Latin American techniques, from saffron-filled laminated pastries to savory flatbreads.
- Parachute Bakery (San Francisco) — a Ferry Building outpost where classical lamination and unexpected savory pairings drive a devoted following.
- The Pastry Project (Seattle) — a Pioneer Square bakery and social enterprise offering reliable favorites year-round plus training programs for people facing employment barriers.
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Bad Butter
Chicago, Illinois
Bad Butter’s storefront in Bucktown has become one of the city’s most consistent lines: customers arrive early for delicate laminated croissants, charred focaccia, and seasonal tarts that sell out quickly. The bakery is the next chapter for chef Dan Koester, who moved from a Soho House pastry role to running a popular online operation before opening a permanent shop in 2026.
The menu balances technical precision with playful flavor—think twice-baked croissants layered with almond paste, or a harissa-sprinkled monkey bread served with labneh. For pastry fans, a curated box of the shop’s highlights is a dependable way to sample the range. — Brenna Houck, dining editorial manager
Chainsaw
Los Angeles, California
What began as an underground dinner series in Echo Park is now a full-service café on Melrose Hill. Karla Subero Pittol brings Venezuelan staples—arepas, guasacaca, and the city’s talked-about passionfruit-lime icebox pie—into a warmly social setting where the menu shifts often and the pastry counter commands attention.
Chainsaw’s strength is its immediacy: dishes feel homegrown but exacting, and regulars treat the place like an extended kitchen table. That blend of familiarity and invention has helped fill a gap in Los Angeles for bold, untamed Venezuelan cooking. — Rebecca Roland, deputy editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest
Diljān
Brooklyn, New York
Diljān positions itself at the crossroads of Afghan and Latin American baking traditions. The founders—experienced restaurateurs and a Honduran American baker—have crafted a menu where saffron-filled crescents sit alongside halwa-topped sticky buns and samosa-inspired savory pastries.
Beyond pastries, the shop stretches into savory territory with sizable Afghan-style flatbreads topped by hybrid combinations like halal beef bacon and sour cherry cream cheese. Rotating specials—flan with cardamom-poached apricots, conchas filled with firni—keep the weekly offerings fresh. — Nadia Chaudhury, deputy editor, Eater New York
Parachute Bakery
San Francisco, California
At the Ferry Building, Parachute Bakery has become a place where disciplined technique meets show-stopping flavor. Pastry chef Nasir Armar applies fine-dining training to croissants and laminated shapes—lychee-studded bowties and sharply layered cube croissants—that are as photogenic as they are precise.
What sets Parachute apart is its willingness to translate savory ideas into pastry: asparagus perched in a croissant shell with fennel jam and ricotta, or playful nods to local seafood traditions. The result is a repertoire that reads like a pastry chef’s notebook, executed at scale for daily orders. — Dianne de Guzman, editor, Eater SF
The Pastry Project
Seattle, Washington
Located near Pioneer Square, The Pastry Project serves reliably comforting sweets—layered cakes, soft-serve, cinnamon rolls—through a walk-up window that draws steady lines. Founders Emily Kim and Heather Hodge transitioned the concept from pop-ups and kits into a permanent window, making staples available year-round.
But the bakery’s impact extends beyond confections: it runs a training program and residency incubator aimed at removing employment barriers in the food industry. Dozens of students have completed cohorts that combine hands-on pastry education with career placement—making The Pastry Project as much a community resource as a dessert destination. — BH
Why this matters now: independent bakeries are increasingly cultural anchors in their neighborhoods. They create jobs, experiment with hybrid cuisines, and turn everyday treats into moments of local pride—trends reflected in the new Eater Awards bakery category for 2026.
- Culinary innovation: bakers are fusing cultural traditions and savory elements into classic pastry techniques.
- Community impact: some shops pair commercial operations with training, residencies, or hiring programs.
- Economic signal: steady demand for specialty pastries shows sustained consumer interest in smaller-format dining experiences.
Eater’s 2026 Awards spotlight these bakeries as part of a broader look at the year’s food scene; select winners are participating in limited-time offers through January 31, 2027. Registration on the Eater site or app is required to access those benefits.
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