Flour Bakery & Cafe owner Joanne Chang always looks happy, and it’s no wonder. Chang opened Flour in 2000, and ever since, this bakery and café has been known as one of Boston’s best and most popular for breakfast pastries, artisanal breads, sandwiches, cakes and cookies, and light suppers for takeout or eat-in. Flour is sunny, cheerful and nearly always full of patrons. Everyone, from the high-end-condominium neighbors to the college students from the other side of Massachusetts Avenue, lines up for Flour's treats. A breakfast trip to the bakery would be incomplete without a taste of the banana bread or the sour cream coffee cake, both simple, home-style cakes that are taken to new levels here. The buttery scones are excellent, too, and the lunch sandwiches are no exception to the mouth-watering rule. Made on tasty, textured bread, offerings such as the BLT or the roast chicken with avocado and jicama show careful preparation and attention to detail. The cakes and tarts are delightful, whether a rich devil’s food cake or a puckery lemon-raspberry. Flour’s supper specials — featuring soups, pizzas and quiches, as well as entrée dishes such as fried chicken and macaroni and cheese — have given regulars another reason to visit the sweet shop, now with three locations in the Boston area.
No alcohol available. Reservations not accepted. Serving breakfast and lunch daily, light early dinner Mon–Fri.
James Beard Foundation: Joanne Chang, Outstanding Pastry Chef finalist (national), 2011-12
"This is where Flour Bakery excels: anything creative and sugary, treats that would bring a smile to the face of any kid (or any incurable sweet tooth)."
— SeriousEats.com
Flour Bakery & Cafe owner Joanne Chang always looks happy, and it’s no wonder. Chang opened Flour in 2000, and ever since, this bakery and café has been known as one of Boston’s best and most popular for breakfast pastries, artisanal breads, sandwiches, cakes and cookies, and light suppers for takeout or eat-in. Flour is sunny, cheerful and nearly always full of patrons. Everyone, from the high-end-condominium neighbors to the college students from the other side of Massachusetts Avenue, lines up for Flour's treats. A breakfast trip to the bakery would be incomplete without a taste of the banana bread or the sour cream coffee cake, both simple, home-style cakes that are taken to new levels here. The buttery scones are excellent, too, and the lunch sandwiches are no exception to the mouth-watering rule. Made on tasty, textured bread, offerings such as the BLT or the roast chicken with avocado and jicama show careful preparation and attention to detail. The cakes and tarts are delightful, whether a rich devil’s food cake or a puckery lemon-raspberry. Flour’s supper specials — featuring soups, pizzas and quiches, as well as entrée dishes such as fried chicken and macaroni and cheese — have given regulars another reason to visit the sweet shop, now with three locations in the Boston area.
No alcohol available. Reservations not accepted. Serving breakfast and lunch daily, light early dinner Mon–Fri.
James Beard Foundation: Joanne Chang, Outstanding Pastry Chef finalist (national), 2011-12
"This is where Flour Bakery excels: anything creative and sugary, treats that would bring a smile to the face of any kid (or any incurable sweet tooth)."
— SeriousEats.com