Union Loafers Cafe and Bread Bakery is a bakery in Botanical Heights, St. Louis.
Union Loafers bakes naturally leavened bread and runs a lunchtime cafe of sandwiches in Botanical Heights, a James Beard-nominated bakery and pizza spot.
Tip: Bread sells out, so come early for a loaf. The Tuesday-to-Saturday pizza nights are a separate, busy service.
Address: 1629 Tower Grove Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110
Chef Simone Faure's French patisserie in Botanical Heights turns out macarons, croissants and cakes with classical technique. The city's French bakery.
Tip: Macarons and laminated pastries are the strengths; custom cakes are a specialty. The morning croissants go quickly.
Worth the queue: Macarons and laminated pastries
Park Avenue Coffee bakes more than 70 varieties of gooey butter cake, the dessert invented here, served with house-roasted coffee in Lafayette Square.
Tip: The Mom's Traditional was named best in town by Food Network. Boxes hold up well as edible souvenirs.
Worth the queue: Mom's Traditional gooey butter cake
A decades-old Affton bakery, Federhofer's makes a distinctive gooey butter cake without cream cheese or powdered sugar, plus full cases of cakes and cookies.
Tip: Its gooey butter is a denser style than the cream-cheese versions. Come early for the freshest cases.
Worth the queue: Gooey butter cake without powdered sugar
A family-run Italian-American bakery on The Hill, Missouri Baking Company is famous for cookies by the pound and a dense, almond-paste gooey butter cake.
Tip: It is cash-and-pickup with no online ordering; buy cookies by weight. Weekend mornings see a line of Hill regulars.
Worth the queue: Almond-paste gooey butter cake and cookies
Chef Simone Faure's French patisserie in Botanical Heights turns out macarons, croissants and cakes with classical technique. The city's French bakery.
Tip: Macarons and laminated pastries are the strengths; custom cakes are a specialty. The morning croissants go quickly.
Worth the queue: Macarons and laminated pastries
Award-winning pastry chef Nathaniel Reid makes precise modern French entremets, tarts and viennoiserie in Kirkwood, rated the metro's finest pastry case.
Tip: The seasonal entremets and the croissants are the standouts. It draws a weekend crowd, so go early.
Worth the queue: Entremets, tarts and viennoiserie
Whisk bakes cakes, cookies and seasonal pastries from scratch on Cherokee Street with a sustainability focus, a community-minded anchor of the Cherokee crawl.
Tip: The seasonal cakes and the cookies are the orders. It shares the Cherokee Street block with the Mud House coffee crowd.
Worth the queue: Cakes, cookies and seasonal pastries
