Four years ago today — on March 20th, 2020 — the State of New York announced an executive order titled New York State on PAUSE instructing all non-essential businesses to close, “in an effort to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19.” In the city, the week leading up to that day was a chaotic mess of contradictory messages. Go out? Stay in? I’ll never forget it, though I’d very much like to.
2020 changed the restaurant industry as we, the people who wrote about it for a living, knew it. Phrases like ‘essential workers’ and ‘social distancing’ became a part of our daily vocabulary while restaurants pivoted to take out, to mutual aid, to outdoor dining, to literally anything that would keep the doors open.
This was the also the genesis of what a lot of people still call the Great Bakery Boom. I agree that the pandemic led to an unprecedented demand for baked goods and also, eventually, a resurgence of pastry chefs in many restaurants, a trend I wrote about for Eater last year.
Thankfully, that all feels like a different time now. By some accounts, this is poised to be the best year yet for restaurants. But in New York, while it’s certainly not a state of emergency anymore, not everyone has adjusted to this new normal.
Still, to commemorate the last four years, I interviewed the owners of six of the best bakeries that either launched in 2020 or experienced a period of rapid growth that year to see how things were going. Through my conversations, it became immediately clear that while these bakers and chefs were able to create something special out of the pandemic, it has been anything but smooth sailing since then.
First up, two bakeries in Brooklyn making two very good, but very different styles of donuts. (The remaining four interviews will be published over the next two months. In the end, you’ll have my list of six excellent places that are still kicking, in some cases thriving, and totally worth your time.)
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