Discover Miami’s Eclectic Bakery Scene

The area’s culture revolves around a good pastry and coffee from the diverse selection of bakeries, many of which draw inspiration from the Caribbean and Latin America.

MIAMI — The Covid-era spike in fancy-restaurant openings by out-of-town operators has been central to Miami’s renown as a boom town. But if you’re searching for what makes eating distinctive in this bustling metropolitan area, you won’t find it at the Michelin-starred sushi pop-up at Thomas Keller’s place in the Four Seasons Hotel.

Instead, explore Miami’s diverse array of bakeries. What you’ll discover — French-style pastries, Mexican conchas, Jamaican patties, Venezuelan cachitos — is a window onto the region’s many connections to the world outside. In this American capital of the Latin-American and Caribbean diaspora, artisan bread-baking thrives, pastelitos outnumber croissants and guava is a common denominator.

When the pastry chef Antonio Bachour parted ways with his first business partner in their bakery in the Brickell neighborhood, a customer missed his ornate desserts so much that he practically begged Mr. Bachour to open his own place. The customer, a real estate developer, offered an airy storefront space on the ground floor of a Coral Gables office building he owned; Bachour opened there in 2019. Glass display cases show off rows of colorful, picture-perfect petits gâteaux, and croissants with so many layers that they’re almost reminiscent of the rings of a tree. Mr. Bachour makes French-style pastries, featuring ingredients like tropical fruits, that evoke his youth in Puerto Rico, where he learned to bake in his father’s business. He credits baking with helping him recover from a brain tumor at age 17. “I wake up every day like it’s the first day, with passion,” he said. “That’s the most important thing.”