Dolly's

The ube morning bun and the rest of the case

A purple sprinkled morning bun is what put Dolly's on people's maps in Bed-Stuy, and it earns the attention: a flaky, laminated exterior around a moist, earthy ube centre, sweet without tipping into candy. It sits in a case that runs wider than one viral item. There are oversized chocolate chip cookies, honey buns sticky enough to need a handful of napkins, and a sour cherry slab cake that cuts into squares rather than wedges. It is a small room and a bakery first, with a cafe counter attached rather than a dining room, and the case turns over fast enough that the morning list and the afternoon list are not the same thing. The Infatuation has named it in its roundup of New York's best Black-owned bakeries.

Egg sandwiches, focaccia and an afternoon soft serve

The savoury half is as considered as the pastry. The classic egg sandwich arrives on a round bun with cheese and meat, but the one people come back for is the cheesesteak and egg: shredded beef, griddled onions, soft scrambled eggs, house cheese whiz and provolone on sesame milk bread, with steak sauce aioli and a crisp hash brown alongside. A spicy meatball sandwich covers the same territory later in the day. The kitchen also stops mid-afternoon to bake focaccia, which comes out in versions like spicy salami and cacio e pepe. Then the counter turns over again for soft serve, spun in house, with flavours that rotate week to week and sundaes layered with swirls and something crunchy on top.

Plan for breakfast and breakfast dessert

Order the ube morning bun first, before it goes, and treat everything after that as a second decision. If you want one plate rather than a pastry, the cheesesteak and egg sandwich is the item to build the visit around, and the hash brown is not optional. Specialty lattes rotate alongside the standard coffee, running to flavours like white chocolate macadamia nut and thin mint, which pair better with the sweeter end of the case than with the sandwiches. Come back later for the soft serve, because the afternoon service is effectively a second menu: a buttermilk base under blueberry compote, corn flakes and lemon zest is the kind of thing that turns up, and it changes. The through line, sweet or savoury, is that everything is built rather than assembled.