Basque cheesecakes, Japanese shokupan, and Parisienne baguettes are among the global offerings available at recently opened craft bakery shops.
Some mark the latest estate expansions of established and up-and-coming brands while a couple are brand-new bakery ventures. There’s a few in London, a few in Liverpool and Manchester, plus one each in Bicester, Doncaster, and Bury St Edmunds.
Check out our round-up of of newly opened sites below:
Arôme Bakery, London
A third London site for French-Asian artisan bakery Arôme has been launched on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Macclesfield Street, within Europe’s largest Chinatown.
The 900 sq ft café concept is led by co-founders Alix Andre, the creative force behind its signature bakes, and Ellen Chew, the restauranteur who also operates Rasa Sayang over the road and Singapulah nearby. Arôme’s menu combines traditional French pastry craft with innovative East Asian flavours, such as the Miso Bacon Escargot, the Honey Butter Toast, and the Gula Melaka Coconut Twist.
Chew noted the Chinatown location was a hub for East and Southeast Asia culture. “Whether we are welcoming tourists, residents, or office workers, we know that the people who come to this part of the West End are seeking exactly what we’re offering – authenticity enhanced through innovation,” she said.
Bear St. Bakery, Bicester
Swiss-born brand Bear St. Bakery has made its UK debut with a food truck permanently parked up at Bicester Village in Oxfordshire.
This offers a signature range of premium cookies in flavours such as Pistachio White Chocolate & Raspberry, Roasted Tahini Chocolate Chip, Vegan Triple Chocolate, and Brown Butter Miso Salted Caramel. There are also seasonal cookies like the Strawberry Cheesecake for summer, along with specialty coffee, ceremonial-grade matcha, and hot chocolate with torched whipped marshmallow.
The company was founded by Max Friedrich, who built his career in fine dining and hospitality with groups including the Dorchester Collection, Zuma, and Shangri-La. It will unveil a flagship site in London later this year.
Cooplands, Doncaster
Northeast bakery chain Cooplands is back growing its estate once more following its management buy-out last October, with a 155th store opened in the Doncaster suburb of Armthorpe.
The site was previously occupied Cooplands of Doncaster – a separate bakery business albeit one founded by a related family member in 1930 which has changed hands several times since. The shop was shut along with a handful of other sister branches in and around the South Yorkshire city in early 2025, including one in Frenchgate which is also set to be reopened under Cooplands on 17 June.
Customers to the latest outlet on Mill Street, which has created 10 new jobs, can expect Cooplands’ core range of baked goods including bread, savoury pastries, and sweet treats like its popular Vanilla Slice, Toffee Danish, and Summer Fruit Flan – there’s also the limited-edition spicy summer items recently launched in collaboration Ainsley Harriot. All products are crafted at Cooplands bakeries in Scarborough and Durham.
Frankley’s Bakery, Liverpool
The team behind Liverpool café-bistro The Watering Can has unveiled Frankley’s Bakery, a new in-house bakery operation located within sister venue The Wheelbarrow on Greenbank Lane as well as a new mobile food trailer positioned near Sefton Park boating lake.
The company has invested over £100k, with specialist bakery equipment among the purchases, whilst recruiting an experienced bakery team to produce a premium range featuring sourdough, focaccia, Parisienne baguettes, brioche rolls, all-butter croissants, shortcrust creations, seasonal favourites and more.
Frankley’s – a portmanteau of the owners’ dog names, Frank and Stanley – will also support the recently launched Luxury Afternoon Tea offering at The Watering Can, allowing it to enhance its premium dining experience through freshly-baked products.
Gooey, Manchester
Located on Oxford Street, in one of Manchester’s busiest districts, is the new Gooey venue – its second café and sixth location overall, joining others across the city plus one over in Liverpool.
Featuring 70 covers and outdoor seating, the new site delivers the brand’s signature sweet treats of filled cookies, doughnuts, buns, and French toast on house brioche, as well as some savoury brunch items like egg with kewpie mayo on toasted Shokupan bread. It is also debuting a new Take Out Sandwich menu of grab-and-go options.
Gooey has extended its specialty drinks offering too with new bakery-themed creations exclusive to Oxford Road including a French toast iced matcha and lemon meringue pie matcha.
La Maritxu, London
A fourth site for the London-based Basque cheesecake specialist has opened in Coal Drops Yard, a hub for food, drink, and shopping located near Kings Cross station. It features inside and outside seating for a total of 14 people.
Alongside the classic cheesecake, which follows the traditional recipe from Bilbao with burnt caramelisation on top, the shop offers a rotating selection of limited-edition flavours like Pistachio, Chocolate, Tiramisu, Summer Berries, and even Manchego as a savoury twist. They are available for purchase by the slice or whole in sizes of mini, medium, 8-inch, and 10-inch.
La Maritxu was founded in 2021 by Spanish native Lucia Larragoiti Fisher with her husband Ignacio and sisters Maria and Almudena. It operates shops on Connaught Street in Paddington, Kingly Street in Soho, and Nelson Road in Greenwich, as well as a 5,000 sq ft central production unit located under railway arches between Bethnal Green and Cambridge Heath stations.
Shokupan, Liverpool
Having initially bonded through their shared love of Asian cuisine, couple Amir Didarzadeh and Meimei Peberdy have now launched Shokupan café – a 600 sq ft space on Aigburth Road in Liverpool. They hired Yufei Yang (aka Rainbow Draws) to create window illustrations, logo and font, with warm tones from solid Iroko wood, custom painted table hardware, green-tiled counter, vintage Ercol chairs, and splashes of red giving a warm inviting feel.
Didarzadeh took months to research and master making Shokupan, the notoriously difficult Japanese milk bread which like at Arôme features in one of the star menu items, Honey Butter Toast. The other is a Miso Brown Butter Cookie that pairs savoury umami flavours with a traditional chocolate cookie.
The business is also unveiling a new Sando menu, starting with classics like Katsu and Tamago on its house-baked Shokupan bread. There are also plans to launch new matcha loaf, black sesame cookies, and shokupan cubes.
Toast, Bury St Edmunds
Essex-based independent coffee chain Toast has unveiled its latest café in Bury St Edmunds, just a couple of months after opening a seventh site in Clacton-on-Sea.
These join the brand’s other locations in Braintree, Chelmsford, Witham, Witham Station, and Colchester, as well as one just over the Suffolk border in Sudbury. The company was founded in 2019 by director Rob Ely and friends Louis and Daniel. Three years ago, it had attempted to save Weston’s Bakery in Sudbury from closure but the takeover deal had subsequently fallen through due to issues with the lease.
Toast’s food offering includes a range of toasties and sandwiches – among them The Brick Lane made with salted beef and pickles, and the Smoky Harissa Roasted Vegetable – along with classic viennoiserie and cake slices such as White Chocolate & Biscoff and Ultimate Carrot Cake.
The Toll House Deli, London
Ane eye-catching new delicatessen on Cremorne Road has opened to offer Chelsea residents some signature Basque cheesecakes, celebration cakes, loaded focaccia sandwiches, breakfast pastries, and other seasonal bakes. Cheesecake flavours include chocolate, pistachio, Biscoff, and berry (also available in mini versions), while elegantly decorated celebration cakes take their names from London themes like Chelsea flower show, Wimbledon, Notting Hill, Chiswick, and Kensington.
The new shop is housed inside a former tollhouse, later a dry-cleaners and then a cupcake shop before a lengthy period of inactivity. A compact single-storey site, it has just 200 sq ft of space to accommodate food prep area, serving counter, and a small toilet – there’s a couple of seats inside and outside, but the deli is mainly takeaway-led.
Leading the business are a husband-and-wife team (names withheld), who bake the products by hand off site. The exterior features a striking blue paint job with a floral design including three little frogs, which represent their three young children.
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