Loblolly Bakery

The bread shelf is the tell at this Midtown Hattiesburg bakery: French bread and sourdough sell out often enough that the loaves are the main event rather than a backup to the pastry case. Restaurateur Robert St. John opened the place in his hometown around 2023, and it has never been only a treat counter. Morning coffee and pastries give way to lunch specials, takeaway dinners, celebration cakes and a grab-and-go cooler.

Bread, biscuits and a daily bake

The head baker has been on the bench since the first day and bakes all the breads, which is why the sourdough and the French loaves carry the reputation. Around them sit croissants, bagels, sweet morning rolls, fruit pies and sandwiches, the range that put the bakery on The New York Times list of the twenty-two best bakeries in the United States in 2024.

The biscuits have their own following. Cheddar, chive and roasted garlic biscuits can be filled with sausage, bacon or steak, which gives breakfast a savoury centre. The sweet side runs to wedding cakes, oatmeal cream pies, strawberry cream croissants, lemon blueberry croissants and brookies, the brownie-and-cookie hybrid, with strawberry shortcake and banana pudding waiting in the cooler.

An early-morning rhythm in Midtown

The crew arrives early and the case changes daily, so no two visits line up exactly. In Midtown’s flow that suits the traffic: Southern Miss students and faculty, locals and visitors stop for coffee and a pastry, come back for a lunch special, and pick up dinner on the way home.

The model is retail and practical rather than leisurely. Catering, wholesale supply to coffee shops and restaurants, pre-ordered holiday sides, casseroles, gumbo, chicken pot pies and lasagna sit beside the bread and cakes, and the savoury prepared food comes out of a kitchen run by a chef who cooked with St. John for years before this. It means the bakery covers errands and occasions at once.

Start with the core bakes

A first pass should be a cross-section: one bread, one morning pastry, one biscuit. French bread or sourdough, a croissant, a bagel or a sweet morning roll, then a biscuit with sausage, which is the filling that drew national notice, though bacon and steak are on the same board.

For sweets, look for oatmeal cream pies, strawberry cream croissants, lemon blueberry croissants or brookies, and check the cooler for strawberry shortcake and banana pudding. The case turns over daily, so the safest plan is to buy what is out rather than what you came for.