Ayu Bakehouse

Savoury pastry with Louisiana inside it

The savoury case is where Ayu makes its argument. Muffaletta breadsticks fold cured meats, cheese and housemade giardiniera into something you can eat while walking down Frenchmen Street, and the Boudin Boy wraps mild pork boudin from Best Stop and a local pasture-raised soft-boiled egg in croissant dough. The Shroom Boom carries mushrooms, caramelised onion and Gruyère, while the Parm and Chive Biscuit is built for layered, savoury eating. All of it comes out of an open kitchen, so the lamination and the shaping are part of the room rather than hidden behind it.

Samantha Weiss and Kelly Jacques met at pastry school in New York and worked through Breads Bakery, Jacques Torres, Michael White and Emeril Lagasse before opening here. That history explains the bakery: New York pastry technique aimed squarely at New Orleans flavour.

The sweet case and the bread

Sweet baking runs from the kaya bun, laminated and filled with coconut pandan custard, to a pain au chocolat built on Valrhona batons and a chocolate babka knot that pulls Nutella into the New York half of the story. A jalapeño cornbread cookie sits on the line between the two cases. Seasonal work has produced a Croissant City king cake slice with cream cheese, cane sugar and cinnamon, and a twice-baked chocolate chicory croissant with chicory cream, hazelnut brittle and rum.

Bread underpins the rest. Seeded sourdough and baguettes come out of the same kitchen and carry the sandwiches, and The Frenchmen layers prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, watermelon radish, green beans and a funky aioli on a sourdough baguette. It is the strongest argument for staying through lunch rather than treating the place as a pastry stop.

How to use it

Order the Boudin Boy first and add the muffaletta breadsticks, since together they show what happens when local savoury staples get laminated. Go sweet second with the kaya bun or the pain au chocolat. If the visit needs to be a meal, The Frenchmen is the sandwich to take, and a cookie travels well afterwards.

The format is counter service in a clean, light room with a few seats inside and tables outside, and baking carries on through the day, so warm things keep appearing rather than vanishing after the first rush. Resy named the bakehouse to its Best of the Hit List in 2025. It fits Frenchmen Street well: order, take the box outside, keep walking.