Caracas Bakery

Sourdough roots and a Venezuelan case

The Doral shop is where Caracas Bakery began, the branch the bakery still calls Doral, The OG. The story starts in 2014, when the business grew out of a sourdough obsession shared among friends and family, and the first bakery opened here in 2019 before the group added MiMo and Coral Gables. That timeline matters, because this is not one more outpost in a larger group; it is the starting point. The bakery describes its own focus as honest bread and beautifully made viennoiserie, which puts loaves and laminated dough at the centre rather than treating pastry as an afterthought. The Venezuelan half of the identity comes through cachitos, golfeado, empanadas and ham specialities; the French-leaning half through croissants, Danish-style pastries, cruffins and palmeritas. The New York Times included it among the 22 best bakeries across the United States in 2024.

A compact counter, not a dining room

The Doral branch reads as a small bakery-café built around counter service, coffee and baked goods rather than a full-service restaurant. It is a modest room with a counter and no table-service ritual, closer to a neighbourhood gathering point where coffee and pastry meet. The practical rhythm is therefore simple: choose from the case, keep to the baked items, and treat it as a bread-and-pastry stop rather than a long sit-down meal. The range is broad for the size. Savoury choices run to cheese pastries, cream cheese and turkey ham pastries, ham-and-cheese croissants, spinach-and-cheese empanadas and shredded chicken empanadas. The sweeter and richer end covers chocolate croissants, pistachio croissants, pastry cream Danishes, pastry cream cruffins and palmeritas.

Start with cachitos, then the pastries

Start with cachitos, one of the clearest Venezuelan signatures tied to the Doral shop. These traditional ham rolls separate the bakery from pastry counters that lean more generally on croissants and cakes. Then look at the laminated case. Croissants, ham-and-cheese croissants, chocolate croissants and pistachio croissants show the viennoiserie side of the bakery's stated mission, while palmeritas add a crisp, sweet option that travels well. The pastry cream Danish and the pastry cream cruffin are the richer picks, and the flaky execution of the croissants and palmeritas is what regulars single out. For something outside the croissant lane, golfeado brings in another Venezuelan reference, and the spinach-and-cheese or shredded chicken empanadas move the order into savoury filled pastry. The split personality is the point: sourdough ambition on one side, Venezuelan pastry and viennoiserie on the other.