Founded in 1978 by Theodore Manousakis and Chef Ernst Moser, Bread & Chocolate brings European artisan baking to Washington, DC through its bakery cafés. The former 11-location operation now serves the community from West End and Chevy Chase, carrying on its tradition of fresh French pastries, artisan breads, and made-from-scratch brunch. Its butter croissants and other pastries are baked fresh each morning.
Pâtisserie PouponSince 1986, Pâtisserie Poupon has been making traditional French pastries in-house, from its Washington, D.C., and Baltimore shops. Its pastry chefs bake fresh daily, with the Signature Fraisier Cake standing out among the pâtisserie’s longstanding specialties.BALTIMORE, MD
LeBus BakeryBorn in a West Philadelphia restaurant kitchen in 1986, LeBus Bakery makes handmade artisan breads, rolls and pastries for restaurants, grocers and food-service customers. Founders Esther McManus and David Braverman developed their French baguette after Esther returned from learning the craft in Nice, then broadened their baking through study with bakers in Europe and across the United States. Today, LeBus produces both fresh and frozen goods, including the brioche buns that have been staples of fine sandwich shops and restaurants for decades.KING OF PRUSSIA, PA
Classic Bakery, IncClassic Bakery, Inc. is a family-run bakery making scratch-baked cakes, pastries and other desserts, with a particular reputation for custom wedding and novelty cakes in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Rubic Movsessian and his son Areen carry forward recipes first developed by Rubic’s father, Souren, whose Tehran bakery began in 1947; the family brought Classic Bakery to the United States in 1991. Drawing on Persian, Armenian and other European and Middle Eastern baking traditions, the company now works from a 10,000-square-foot production facility and operates locations in Maryland and Virginia.GAITHERSBURG, MD