One of the Upper East Side’s longest continually running businesses, Orwasher’s was founded by a Hungarian family in 1916. Today, it’s run by baker Keith Cohen, whose starters are spiked with different types of wine or lager. The shop is best known for its rugelach, pumpernickel bread, spelt loaves, jelly doughnuts, and black-and-white cookies, but don’t miss the sticky-bun babka, chocolate croissants, seeded bagels, glazed doughnuts, turnovers, or cherry cheese strudel — it’s some of the best in the city.

An anchor of NYC’s bread-baking scene, Amy’s opened in Hell’s Kitchen in 1992 and remains a go-to for artisan breads made with flour that’s good for you (i.e., not bleached and bromated): from white to wheat and rye in baguettes, sourdough boules, Pullman loaves, and more. Today there are seven spots to pick up bread, pastries, cakes, and other treats.

Zachary Golper and his partner Kate Wheatcroft brought a new level of perfectionism to baked goods when they opened their first shop in Boerum Hill in 2011. The crust on their loaves is bien cuit, or well-burnished — sometimes almost black on the edges. Another is the crumb, or bread’s interior, and Bien Cuit’s bread is held aloft by a dense network of bubbles. Though Golper’s miche is one of the city’s best, and his baguette (with its sharply curved slits) one of the city’s most beautiful, the pastries he puts out are equally lovely and unexpected.

This Australian import landed in Nomad back in 2019 with its rustic sourdough and pastries — along with an avid following that sparked long waits in its early days. At the bakery, the artisanal breads are just part of the quality offerings, including peanut butter-and-jelly croissants, shakshuka danishes, and its savory sausage rolls. It’s since expanded.

Founded in Stockholm by Charlotta and David Zetterström in 2008, and known as a “stenugnsbageri” or stone-oven bakery, Fabrique is celebrated for its  sourdough breads and cardamom buns. Other items include a ham, cheese, and mustard croissant; impossibly dense chocolate brownies; as well as saffron danish. A tea room allows customers to eat their purchases on the premises with a view of the oven.

Former head baker of Maison Kaiser, Yann Ledoux opened this Stuyvesant Town bakery in 2021; today, he’s offering baguettes and mini baguettes, cereal bread, cheese bread, walnut bread, olive loaves, and more. Viennoiserie includes pan chocolat, brioche, turnovers, and bressane, while pastry favorites include flan nature and gateau Basque. There’s also a bread subscription option.

Paula Oland has been the head baker at Balthazar since 1999. Today, she runs the brand’s massive bakery operation in Englewood, New Jersey, but her products are found across the city and for retail sale at Balthazar’s Bakery on Spring Street in Soho. There find Oland’s baguettes, miche, rye bread, ciabatta, focaccia, brioche, and croissants. Meanwhile, Mark Tasker runs Balthazar’s pastry and dessert program, putting out thin puff-pastry frangipane tarts, fruit- and cheese-filled danishes, tall layer cakes, rolled mousses, stacks of cookies, and seasonal specials like mince pies in the winter and strawberry-rhubarb galettes in the spring.

Monica Von Thun Calderón opened Grandaisy — named for her grandmother — over 15 years ago, after being an original partner in Sullivan Street Bakery. She makes Italian-style loaves, pizza bianca, focaccia with toppings like zucchini and potatoes, as well as Roman-style pizza, ossa di morto (“bones of the dead”) cookies, and little tarts and hand pies, often with surprising fillings. Her bread pudding is among the richest in town.

Friends from grade school, Bane Stamenkovic, Uliks Fehmiu, and Tole Zurovac grew up in the former Yugoslavia and moved to the U.S. In typical resourceful-immigrant fashion, they learned how to bake and started a business: Pain d’Avignon. The breads range from soft ciabattas to dense Old World-style loaves to sweet brioche buns. Pastry offerings include walnut croissants, pistachio snails, sticky cinnamon buns, and chocolate olive oil cake. Today, there are multiple places to try its baked goods around the city.

Nora Allen’s bakery, Mel, may be open just a few days a week, but nevertheless, customers consistently wait in lines wrapped around the shop to get their hands on the bakery’s fragrant, tangy sourdough loaves and flaky, buttery croissants stuffed with whatever’s in season at the farmers market. The small-but-mighty menu landed Allen on the 2023 James Beard Award long list as an outstanding pastry chef.