Breads Bakery

Babka and baguette, baked in small batches

Two signatures pull in opposite directions at Breads Bakery, and both of them work. The chocolate babka took New York Magazine's Best of New York recognition, and the baguette was named best in the city by French Morning; between them they describe the range, Eastern European Jewish bakery tradition on one side and classic European breadcraft on the other. The baking runs in small batches through the day rather than in a single early production push, which is why the case looks different at four in the afternoon from how it looked at eight. Breads, pastries, sweets and sandwiches make up the counter, and the brand now runs across half a dozen Manhattan neighbourhoods without thinning out.

A counter built for the city day

This is a retail bakery, not a restaurant, and it is designed around a working Manhattan day. Breads and pastries carry the morning, sandwiches take lunch, sweets do the afternoon and the gift box. Nothing is coursed and nothing needs planning. The shops sit in commercial, foot-traffic-heavy parts of the city, so the crowd is commuters, office workers, neighbourhood regulars and visitors in roughly equal measure, moving through at speed. The atmosphere comes from turnover more than from decor: loaves and pastries leaving the case, being replaced, and the smell that goes with all of it. Gift boxes and celebration orders sit alongside the everyday counter, which is how the bakery covers occasions as well as commutes.

Chocolate babka first

Order the chocolate babka. It is the house symbol and the fairest thing to judge the bakery by. Then build outward by daypart: the baguette if you want the bread side, rugelach for something smaller, a sandwich if it is the middle of the day. Seasonal runs are worth timing a visit around. During strawberry season the counter carries a Strawberry Cheesecake Babka, made on the same buttery babka dough with a New York-style strawberry and cheesecake filling; a Strawberry Rugelach, bite-sized and flaky with strawberry jam; and a Strawberry Shortbread Cookie that returns each year. On the drinks side the matcha is the considered choice, smooth and earthy, served with the milk you prefer. A first visit works well as babka, one bread and one seasonal sweet.