Former pandemic pop-up rises to claim East Bay’s best bakery title

A croissant/Spam musubi mash-up, a matcha tiramisu cake and a pulled-apart gochujang – these are a few of the impressed creations from Joyce Tang and her staff that led Nosh readers to vote Bake Sum as one of the best bakery within the East Bay for 2025.

Nosh readers forged their votes forward of Thanksgiving, and the outcomes of the Nosh costs 2025 are inside. Nosh kicks off the awards ceremony with the winner of the Greatest Bakery. Go to Nosh every single day from now till December 12 to announce a brand new prize winner every single day.

Tang, the founding father of La Chinoiserie, launched Bake Sum as a pastry pop-up in 2020 through the COVID-19 pandemic. It rapidly gained consideration for its distinctive taste combos and expertly baked candy and savory choices. In September 2021, Bake Sum opened at its present location on Grand Avenue, just a few blocks from Lake Merritt. ‘Som’ refers to each the Cantonese phrase for ‘coronary heart’ and the bakery type of mixing two or extra taste profiles in a single merchandise.

One Nosh Awards voter summed up the sentiment concerning the Grand Avenue bakery properly: “[Y]scrumptious Asian fusion pastries, seasonal menu, very cute restaurant decor and pleasant entrance desk workers.”

Voter after voter talked about the distinctive pastries, together with new creations added repeatedly to the menu, and the general execution. The New York Occasions named the croissubi one of many nation’s 26 greatest dishes in 2024, and a transplant from the East Bay to the Large Apple acquired equally essential acclaim.

“Actually all kinds of pastries that change month-to-month. I moved to New York and so they nonetheless cannot maintain me away, I get a field of the whole lot each time I am house,” mentioned voter An Vo.

Tang and crew maintain issues contemporary by all the time including new, seasonal objects to the pastry case.

“I really like their distinctive pastries that you simply actually cannot get wherever else and the altering flavors maintain you coming again. Their IG account additionally will get a nod to maintain clients knowledgeable about new and upcoming seasonal flavors,” mentioned Carrie of Oakland.

Lastly, as many citizens famous, Bake Sum pastries are all the time price a photograph too.

“Bake Sum deserves this. Their pastries persistently knock it out of the park with taste, creativity and sweetness!” Could wrote from Oakland.

That is the primary yr that Nosh has awarded an award for one of the best bakery. Bake Sum has subsequently set the bar for the opposite bakers who will go for gold in 2026. The opposite nominees within the Greatest Bakery class had been Fournée, Starter Bakery, Forma, Nabolom Bakery and Patisserie, Patisserie Rotha and Candy Adeline’s.