Maine’s Bakeries
You can find an incredible bakery just about everywhere in Maine. Bakeries dot our state, from traditional baked goods to specialty treats, often award-winning, many that use locally grown grains, always delicious. Some bakers sell their fresh boules and baguettes from their farms, others in cozy shops and others under tents at farmer’s markets.
While fresh-baked bread is standout, we get rave reviews for our bagels and donuts, our muffins and pies, our cookies and cakes. Our bakers celebrate Maine with their baking and pride themselves on using Maine ingredients like heritage grains, local berries, pure Maine maple syrup, and standbys like Original Bakewell Cream.
For long-time local favorites baking up traditional goods, visit Abbot Village Bakery – a great place to pick up goodies for hikes, camping and fishing trips. In Lewiston, Labadie’s Bakery has been baking since 1925! This is the very first bakery to offer the State’s Official Treat, whoopie pies. The European Bakery and Tea Room in Falmouth bakes pastries, cakes, tarts and much more.
When you want to bring bread home, choosing where to snag a fresh loaf will be hard. The Miller’s Table in Skowhegan not only makes fresh bread daily, but uses Maine Grains to do it, making it as local as you can get. Tinder Hearth’s bread, pastry, and coffee are available for walk-in purchase on Wednesday through Saturday at their Brooksville location (their pizza is great, too).
In the hamlet of Mt. Vernon, Scapes Café and Bakery offers a variety of freshly baked goods for pick up or you can sit down and enjoy a sticky bun or cupcake and admire the lakeside view, before taking a loaf to go. Solo Pane makes house-fermented, Italian inspired breads in Bath in a charming location. Waldoboro’s Perch Café and Bakery is committed to creating tasty baked goods and hosting community events like their monthly gather and knit and block printing workshops. Bread and Friends in Portland not only has a cute café for brunch, breads and pastries but also sells their house-milled flours. Gross Bakery and Confection Bar offers an array of seasonally baked pastries, scones, biscuits, and more! Head to Lil’s Cafe in Kittery to enjoy a wonderful menu, complete with breads, bagels and pastries.
If you want to grab and go, you won’t sacrifice anything. Some of Maine’s best bakeries only offer counter service like the inestimable Standard Baking Co., setting the ‘standard’ for decades along with newcomers like Norimoto Bakery, ZUbakery, all three are James Beard award winners. Tandem Coffee and Bakery, Two Fat Cats Bakery and Belleville round out the counter-service hotspots in Portland. It is honestly hard to choose a favorite so it’s best to just enjoy them all – and then work it off with a hike, paddle or pedal.
Don’t miss Fika in Saco or the Strawberry Shortcake at Beth’s Farm Market in Warren. Slate’s Bakery in Hallowell is the perfect complement to the beloved restaurant next door. Maine even has unique self-service bakeries like Momo’s Cheesecake, the cute little farmstand-style Puzzle Mountain Bakery, and Black Crow, where you’ll frequently pick up loaves still warm from the oven. We dare you to not tear into it on the way home.
And you know what goes great with Maine’s breads? Maine cheese!