Miami, FL (The Joy of Food) — Zak the Baker is the bakery every neighborhood needs, a bustling, thriving city hot spot with the glorious baked goods to warrant its cult-like following and endless accolades.
If you come here for one thing and one thing only, it should be for the butter croissant, a great value at $3 for something that’s classically made and fresh from the oven. The lamination is superb, each pinch from the glazed, perfectly crisp outside unravelling a few pillowy, soft layers from the inside with it, resplendent with the taste and aroma of butter like the very best croissants in Paris. Mon dieu times ten.
The kouign-amann produced here is not traditional, whether we’re talking the original Breton cake-like one or the Americanized, individualized, caramelized, flaky version that’s a sibling to the croissant. When cut in half, the inside is dense and features a gooey, sweet middle of pecans, almost like a cinnamon roll in taste, texture, and appearance, and there are fewer contrasting crispy and soft layers Zak’s take on the kouign-amann is different, but in a good way.
From the outside, the corner storefront is hard to miss, a painted canvas of vertical fluorescent striping that’s more tiki bar than bakery, a colorful scene that gives way to pandemonium when you enter and the take-a-number system becomes both your salvation and your barrier toward carb nirvana. Most of Miami comes here, and for good reason.
A seat at the bar gives you a bird’s eye view of how the carbo goodness comes to life, a huge baking area that still, despite its size, seems to barely keep up with demand. The place is part cafe, part warehouse in feel which matches the vibe of the Wynwood neighborhood, a gentrifying area north of Miami where huge murals of street art are a big part of the character.
There’s also a cafe menu with an assortment of toasts, soups, and eggs, and every type of coffee and tea under the sun, including Cuban-style cortaditos. I was happy just double fisting croissant and kouign-amann, and next time I plan to add an entire loaf of bread to the mix.
Written by Joy
Thanks for reading. The Joy of Food blog celebrates eating well, traveling often, and living la dolce vita. San Diego, California is home base, but thoughts are from all over. Reviews and photos help to highlight wonderful (or not) food experiences from around the world.
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Your description of the kouign amann is making my mouth water. I think the Cuban-style cortadito might go well with it. So did it take long for your number to be called?
The wait was like 10-15 minutes since people seem to get everything on the menu, so each order takes a while. Overall the process was nuts. It’s a pack 4-5 people deep on top of each other quasi pushing and shoving – it reminded me of Italy lol.
Mmm… I gotta win a trip to Miami. The croissant sounds like ones Canele Bakery https://www.hungryones.com/2020/01/canele-bakery/ makes.
Yum! I still have not had a croissant there, and not for lack of trying. When I finally found the place (took a while – it’s the weirdest corporate-looking spot in a mixed work-eat complex) I also found a little note about how they were sold out and thus closed. I’ll have to get up at 5 a.m. one of these days and be the first in line!
Don’t go at 5am. They open at 9am Tuesday-Saturday
They have a really nice space, too, for watching all the dough get made!
Butter bombs with a show!