There’s no flashy sign outside Norimoto Bakery in Portland’s residential Deering Center neighborhood—only a line typically snaked outside the tiny storefront. Inside, minimalist wooden shelves display neat rows of pastries: yuzu meringue tarts, miso honey butter cinnamon rolls, plum blueberry danishes, caramelized black sesame kouign-amann. They’re the work of owner and baker Atsuko Fujimoto, originally from Tokyo, who has brought French technique and Japanese sensibility to Maine’s local bounty.
Portland has long been synonymous with seafood. The compact peninsula on Casco Bay is anchored by a functional waterfront and a density of raw bars and lobster shacks, drawing tourists who roll in like the tide each summer. But more recently, the city has become a year-round food destination—one now defined by what comes out of the oven as much as what comes out of the ocean.
“What makes Portland special is that it’s still a town that is conducive to small business and people chasing their passions,” says Marcus Im, cofounder of Onggi Market & Café, a fermentation-forward specialty and coffee shop. “You can go to a place and it’s weird and quirky, and the person’s passionate about stuff that you don’t understand, but they’re just so passionate about it that it’s infectious.”
Onggi Market and Café’s name, pronounced “OHNG-ghee,” is the Korean word for a traditional earthenware vessel used for fermenting foods.
Photos by Greta Rybus
Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in Portland’s baking scene, which has surged from great-for-a-small-city status to national acclaim. In 2024, Norimoto Bakery’s Atsuko Fujimoto took home the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker honor and Zu Bakery, owned by longtime Portland baker Barak Olins, won for Outstanding Bakery—two major industry accolades for a town where you can walk from one side of the peninsula to the other in less than 30 minutes.
Portlanders point to a simple equation for their successes: serious talent plus exceptional ingredients. “We have all of these amazing bakeries, because they have the ability to source from people who are really taking care of how they’re growing things,” says Brianna Crespo, food and beverage manager at the Longfellow Hotel, the West End neighborhood’s design-forward boutique newcomer. The state’s short harvest season raises the stakes. But as Im notes, “The produce has to work very hard to survive in Maine, and that tends to make a more delicious product.”
Today, those delicious products show up all over town, from miso-scallion scones with chili crunch butter to ginger-turmeric almond financiers. And it’s not slowing down. “With more and more bakeries opening up, we don’t ever think of it as competition,” Im says. “The rising tide raises all ships.”
Read on for the essential stops, and plan to tick them all off your list for a perfect long weekend.
The Best Bakeries in Portland
Locals have been flocking to Tandem Bakery for more than a decade.
Photos by Greta Rybus
Zu Bakery
81 Clark Street
Barak Olins pulls fresh batches from the oven all day, so while you might find flaky rhubarb and ginger galettes at opening, a different batch of treats will land at the counter by midmorning. Visit early, first for the perennial favorite: an airy chocolate croissant. Then return in the afternoon, when sourdough (using flour milled on site from locally grown wheat) arrives with crackly, burnished crusts. Items in the case change with the seasons, but the classics remain. “I’m very much a traditionalist,” Olins says. “Simple flavors and flavor combinations that are really tried and true.”
Tandem Coffee + Bakery
742 Congress Street
Housed in a late-’60s former gas station, Tandem is a West End anchor, beloved for its serious coffee bar and destination-worthy baked goods. The stars are the craggy, salt-flaked buttermilk biscuit, loaded with butter and fruit jam or the not-too-spicy cheddar-jalapeño version. Inventive flavors—olive-oil brioche sticky buns with brown butter, cinnamon sugar, and orange-cream glaze; pineapple-rosemary scones; and spicy ginger molasses cookies with toasted white chocolate—have kept locals coming back for more than 10 years.
Bread & Friends
505 Fore Street
If you’re enjoying a toast piled with avocado or smoked salmon at any restaurant in Portland, there’s a good chance it’s built on Bread & Friends sourdough. But the Fore Street headquarters is worth a visit (or two) in its own right. After years selling at the farmers’ market, two married couples opened the bakery and café in 2023. (Executive chef Jeremy Broucek earned a 2026 James Beard Award semi-finalist nod this year.) An in-house grain mill and wood-fired oven turn out crusty country loaves and airy khorasan-wheat baguettes—plus classic pastries and seasonal blueberry pop tarts that disappear fast. At night, the bakery transforms into an elegant dinner spot with plates of house-made pasta, Maine seafood, a natural-leaning wine list, and, of course, standout bread service.
Onggi Market & Café
131 Washington Avenue
Cofounders Amy Ng, Marcus Im, and Erin Zobitz call Onggi a “fermentation bodega”—part café, part pantry stop—where you can grab a cookie and leave with something like calamansi vinegar or wild Maine blueberry sriracha for your own kitchen. Start with Ng’s sourdough chocolate-chip cookie: a deceptively complex, not too sweet treat built on Maine grains, butter, and sea salt. Round out your order with matcha and black sesame butter mochi and one of the specialty drinks, like the Meyer lemon shiso shrub.
Standard Baking Co.
75 Commercial Street
Portland’s original carb compass, Standard Baking Co., opened in the Old Port in 1995—well before the city was a buzzy food destination—and helped establish what serious bread could look like in a small New England city. Three decades later, little has changed, and for good reason. The morning bun, a buttery laminated spiral with brown sugar and cinnamon, remains the most popular order. Add a plush Swedish-style cardamom bun and a baguette to tear apart on the walk back to your hotel.
Night Moves Bread
695 Broadway Unit 2, South Portland
Owner Kerry Hanney built Night Moves Bread around her loaves—made with sustainably grown, stone-milled Northeast grain and baked bien cuit (French for well done), with deeply caramelized crusts. Country sourdough is always on the schedule, along with ever-changing rotations. One day may include malted raisin bran, another sesame spelt or poppy apricot. It’s worth making the short trek across the Casco Bay Bridge for bread alone, but the pastry case adds a reason to linger. Look for specials like pistachio spelt and cornmeal coffeecakes with tart cherry jam or ginger-turmeric almond financiers. On Fridays, the oven churns out sourdough pizzas topped with local ingredients, like squash blossoms with herb ricotta. Order ahead, then take your box next door to Lambs, a family-friendly bar with picnic tables overlooking the Fore River.
Norimoto Bakery
469 Stevens Avenue
Yes, you’ll need to take a car to get to Atsuko Fujimoto’s award-winning, take-out only shop, but adding this outing to your itinerary is a must if you’re serious about pastries. Find buttery croissants and sweets laced with miso caramel, yuzu, or red bean, alongside savory hand pies, onigiri, and in-season Japanese strawberry shortcakes. If it’s still on display, order a half-loaf of fluffy shokupan (Japanese milk bread) for the road.
