Jewish Bakeries
A curated list
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MANHATTAN
Don Francis
Founder & CEO
Ashley Jones
Tech Lead
Tess Brown
Office Manager
Lisa Rose
Product Manager
Kevin Nye
HR Lead
Alex Young
Customer Support Lead
THE BRONX
Don Francis
Founder & CEO
Ashley Jones
Tech Lead
Tess Brown
Office Manager
Lisa Rose
Product Manager
Kevin Nye
HR Lead
Alex Young
Customer Support Lead
BROOKLYN
Don Francis
Founder & CEO
Ashley Jones
Tech Lead
Tess Brown
Office Manager
Lisa Rose
Product Manager
Kevin Nye
HR Lead
Alex Young
Customer Support Lead
QUEENS
Don Francis
Founder & CEO
Ashley Jones
Tech Lead
Tess Brown
Office Manager
Lisa Rose
Product Manager
Kevin Nye
HR Lead
Alex Young
Customer Support Lead
STATEN ISLAND
Don Francis
Founder & CEO
Ashley Jones
Tech Lead
Tess Brown
Office Manager
Lisa Rose
Product Manager
Kevin Nye
HR Lead
Alex Young
Customer Support Lead
My favorite savory bite in NYC as of late...
MICHAELI BAKERY
I am definitely more savory than sweet, so while everyone else may be heading straight for the famous babka and rugelach, my favorite thing at Michaeli Bakery is the pizza bureka. Flaky, savory and tomato-y, it is one of my favorite bites in New York City. If I am near Michaeli, this is what I am getting. The pizza bureka is also called out by other customers as a favorite among Michaeli’s savory pastries.
Israeli pastry chef Adir Michaeli previously led the pastry department at Lehamim Bakery in Tel Aviv and later came to New York to help open Breads Bakery before creating Michaeli Bakery.
MY PICK: Pizza bureka
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LOCATIONS:
Lower East Side115A Division Street
Upper East Side 401 East 90th Street
Legend
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THE INSTITUTION: Zabar's
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THE CENTURY-OLD BAKERY: Orwashers
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THE ISRAELI PASTRY CHEF: Michaeli Bakery
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THE MODERN BABKA: Breads Bakery
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THE OLD-SCHOOL BABKA: Oneg Bakery
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THE BIALY: Kossar's
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THE KNISH: Yonah Schimmel
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THE BLACK & WHITE: William Greenberg
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THE NEW GENERATION: Elbow Bread
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THE VEGAN & GLUTEN-FREE: By the Way Bakery
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THE SEPHARDIC BAKERY: Mansoura Bakery
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THE BUKHARIAN BAKERY: Rokhat Kosher Bakery
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THE CHEESECAKE: S&S Cheesecake
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THE BRONX RUGELACH: The Rugelach Shop
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THE STATEN ISLAND BAGEL: Heartland Bagels
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THE HOME BAKER: ChallinBiscotti
NO STOREFRONT REQUIRED
NYC HOME BAKERS, MICROBAKERIES & POP-UPS
A CURATED LIST
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Samantha @ www.Challah.Day
Upper West Side
Instagram: @challah.day
Small-batch, one-woman challah bakery & events
TRY: Challah
ORDER: Preorder for pickup
Emily @ CHALLIN BISCOTTI
Brooklyn
challinbiscotti.com
Whatsapp/social ordering available
Home bakery operating for more than a decade.
TRY: Challah, babka, mandel bread and desserts.
Challah flavors include everything, za'atar and cinnamon streusel.
KOSHER: JSOR HomeKosher certified.
Cody @ BREAD OF IDLENESS
Astoria, Queens
Instagram: @bread_of_idleness
Cottage challah bakery with creative weekly flavors.
TRY: Whatever the special challah is that week.
Jennifer @ HOME COOKED IS BEST
Upper West Side
Instagram: @homecookedisbest
Home-baked challah and babka with flavors that have included rosemary, everything, cinnamon, chocolate, za'atar and tahini.
Jennifer @ HEIMISHE BILKALEH
Manhattan
Instagram: @heimishe_bilkaleh
Home baker making challah and some very creative rugelach.
The name bilkaleh means “little roll” in Yiddish and comes from a family story.
DM to order
Shirley @ HOMEBAKED NYC
Brooklyn / NYC
Instagram: @homebakednyc
Appears in the HomeKosher network of small kosher food businesses.
DM to order
Kosher certified by HomeKosher by JSOR
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NOOSH KNEADS
NYC Based
Instagram: @nooshkneads
nooshkneads.com
A Persian Jewish, woman-founded microbakery that started as a quarantine challah project and grew into a small-batch, online business known for creative flavors, limited drops and collaborations.
TRY: Apple crumb challah or the cardamom-halva challah created in collaboration with Seed + Mill.
HOW TO ORDER: Order online through the website, with limited drops and special collaborations announced on Instagram.
KOSHER NOTE: Kosher certification has not been verified.
WHY IT'S SPECIAL: No traditional storefront. This is exactly the kind of Jewish baking happening quietly around New York through small batches, online orders and social media.
CHALLAH FRIDAYS AT GERTIE + CHALLAHDAD
602 Vanderbilt Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Instagram: @gertienyc | @challahdad
gertie.nyc
A weekly Friday collaboration between Brooklyn restaurant Gertie and Challahdad, bringing freshly braided challah to Prospect Heights through preorder and limited walk-in availability.
TRY: Challahdad's fresh braided challah.
HOW TO ORDER: Preorder through Gertie, generally by Wednesday at midnight, for Friday pickup. A limited number of loaves may also be available for walk-ins on Fridays.
KOSHER NOTE: Kosher certification has not been verified.
WHY IT'S SPECIAL: Not a traditional bakery and not quite a pop-up. It's a weekly Jewish food ritual inside a neighborhood restaurant, with a social-media baker using Gertie as his Friday home.
CHALLAHDAD
Brooklyn + NYC Area
Instagram: @challahdad
Email: hello@challahdad.com
A social-media-first challah baker bringing a playful spin to the traditional Friday loaf, with preorders, pickup, delivery and collaborations around NYC.
TRY: A classic braided challah or go big with one of the enormous custom “Challahconda” creations.
HOW TO ORDER: Preorder for NYC pickup or delivery. Custom and oversized challahs can be ordered directly by email. Challahdad also offers Friday pickup through Gertie in Prospect Heights.
KOSHER NOTE: Kosher certification has not been verified.
WHY IT'S SPECIAL: The jumbo challahs. Challahdad takes a traditional Jewish food and turns it into something fun and unexpected, including giant custom loaves and even a six-foot challah sandwich.
Beverly @ NANA KNEADS
(201) 755-2707
NJ Based
Try her pull-apart challahs, which are designed to be easily ripped apart and shared with the guests at your table. Kastner — whose daughter-in-law came up with the name of the business because Kastner is a nana, or grandmother, to nine — kneads and bakes challah as well as babka in her Bergen County, New Jersey home and delivers locally and to the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan.
​Nicole @ NICS DESSERTS
Instagram: @nicsdesserts
prepares gluten-free and dairy-free desserts from her homes in Deal, New Jersey and Midwood, Brooklyn. You can order from her Instagram directly or purchase her treats from the Upper East Side shop Tomer’s or via Kosher Valet, a kosher food delivery service. Michael’s tasty options include thumbprint logs (a nut or almond crust filled with preserves or jelly). Her kashrut is certified by HomeKosher, a kashrut vetting organization led by rabbis of the Jersey Shore Orthodox Rabbinate.
FROM THE SYNAGOGUE
A CURATED LIST
Some of New York’s most special Jewish food finds aren’t in bakeries at all. Synagogues, Chabad houses and Jewish community spaces offer homemade challah, baked goods and other treats to order or pick up. Part food, part community and the kind of NYC discovery you have to know to look for.
CHABAD WEST VILLAGE + BRAIDED
Chabad West Village
(212) 518-3122
150-B Seventh Avenue South, West Village
Every week, Chabad West Village serves as a pickup location for homemade kosher challah from Braided, a small challah company founded by community member Tara Satnick. Orders are placed by Wednesday and picked up at the Chabad on Friday.
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And the story behind it is remarkable. Satnick was in Israel on October 6, 2023, planning to meet friends at the Nova Festival the next day. She changed her plans at the last minute. After returning to New York, she began baking challah as a way to connect with and support the Jewish community. That eventually became Braided.
BUY: Homemade kosher challah.
HOW: Preorder, then pick it up at the synagogue on Friday.
THE SHUL IN SOHO
The Shul in Soho at Chabad of Tribeca/Soho
4.6•Synagogue
Website•Directions•(212) 566-6764
341 Canal Street
Another excellent one.
The synagogue advertises freshly baked challah for Shabbat, currently listed at $10, with orders placed in advance.
BUY: Fresh challah.
WHY I LIKE IT: You're actually purchasing your Shabbat challah through a neighborhood Jewish community center rather than going to a conventional bakery.
CHABAD ANNEX + PATIS BAKERY
676 Amsterdam Avenue at West 93rd Street, Upper West Side
Websites: thechabadannex.org | patis.com
This one is unusual because a synagogue and a kosher bakery actually share the same storefront space.
The Chabad Annex is an extension of Chabad of the West Side, used for prayer, Torah study, classes and its Young Minyan. Chabad partnered with Patis Bakery, which operates its kosher bakery and café from half of the Annex space during the week.
Then comes the very New York part: on Shabbat, the bakery closes and the space becomes part of the synagogue. A local Upper West Side report describes seeing the café filled with young Jewish people praying on Saturdays.
Patis is a French-American kosher bakery known for croissants, pastries, breads, sandwiches and coffee. Its current kosher certification includes Pas Yisroel and Cholov Yisroel.
TRY: Croissants, pastries and Friday challah.
WHY IT'S SPECIAL: Come during the week and you're buying a pastry in a kosher café. Come on Shabbat and that same space is being used for prayer.
CHABAD OF WASHINGTON HEIGHTS EAST
Chabad of Washington Heights East
Religious organization
Website•Directions•(917) 202-3531
390 Audubon Avenue
This one also promotes homemade challah through the community. I want to investigate its current ordering system further before we tell readers definitively that they can walk in and purchase it, but it belongs on our research list.
AND THEN THERE ARE SYNAGOGUE SISTERHOODS
This is probably where your nun analogy gets closest.
Jewish synagogue sisterhoods traditionally cook and bake for synagogue events, holiday fairs, fundraising, kiddush and community programs. I found current NYC-area congregations advertising challah baking and food programs, but I haven't yet found enough that maintain a regular public-facing baked-goods shop for me to send your readers there every Friday.
For example, Aish Kodesh's Sisterhood explicitly says its women bake challah for people in need of healing, matches and other blessings, with proceeds from Sisterhood events supporting the synagogue. Queens Jewish Center also held a community challah bake this year.
CHABAD ISRAEL CENTER OF STATEN ISLAND
44 Brunswick Street, Staten Island
Website: chabadisraelsi.com
This one is different because you aren't simply buying the challah. You can make it.
The Chabad Israel Center has hosted community challah-baking events where participants make challah together as part of the Jewish ritual and community experience.
TRY: The experience itself.
HOW TO JOIN: Events require advance RSVP. Check the Chabad calendar for upcoming challah bakes.
IMPORTANT: We have verified the baking event, not a regular public challah-sale program.
WHY IT'S SPECIAL: This gets much closer to the experience we're looking for. You're entering a Jewish community space and participating in the tradition behind the food, rather than simply buying something from a bakery.