Flagler St. Bakery
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Flagler St. Bakery has a permanent address. The downtown bakery and coffee shop, which spent this past spring running a Sunday pastry kiosk outside Over Under, opened its own space at 12 NE First Ave. on Friday, Aug. 7, and owner Julian Gheiler says it has been slammed almost every day since.
“The opening hype is real for sure,” Gheiler says. “We’re really lucky.”
Everything is made on site, which, Gheiler says, makes it the only bakery in downtown Miami that produces all of its bread and pastry from scratch. Pastries and bread come out first thing in the morning, and sandwiches start getting served after 10 a.m.
And when it comes to said pastries, get ready to experience flavor combinations as you’ve never had before.
Flagler St. Bakery
Pastries that take days to create
If there’s one pastry everyone must try, it’s the medianoche croissant. It’s made with ham, Swiss, roast pork, pickles, and mustard folded into cross-laminated croissant dough. The delicacy takes many, many steps and, like every pastry here, at least three days to create. “It’s kind of like the medianoche sandwich, but in a crispy, cross-laminated croissant version,” Gheiler says. “It’s one of my proudest creations for sure.”
Other pastry highlights include his chocolate babka, made with croissant dough swirled with Nutella and bittersweet chocolate. It’s the pastry he’s been known for in Miami for the past few years. There’s also a delicious miso caramel bar that has an oat cookie base filled with brown sugar miso caramel custard. It’s Gheller’s current favorite.
There’s also a labneh za’atar Danish with labneh, za’atar, cucumber, tomato, and mint, and a tahini babka with white chocolate, cardamom, and rose. Oh, and don’t forget the morning bun, an Earl Grey bun, a lox bagel croissant, and ube butter mochi. The bakery truly has one of the most unique pastry displays in the city.
Photo by Evan Garcia @evihnz
The coffee is as special as the baked goods
As for sandwiches, think classics with a twist. The “Morty Sammy” features mortadella, burrata, pistachio pesto, arugula, and balsamic glaze on rosemary focaccia. Then, there’s the “El Mikel,” made with jamón serrano and queso Cabrales on pan de cristal con tomate. “La Rustica” is the vegetarian option, a focaccia sandwich with roasted eggplant, confit tomato and garlic, goat cheese, and mozzarella. Lastly, a turkey avocado club on sourdough rounds out the menu.
The coffee program uses beans from Panther Coffee, but the syrups and drinks are made in-house, such as the “Flagler Fog” made with double espresso, Earl Grey syrup, and Earl Grey cold foam, and a “Mamey Matcha” with mamey syrup and mamey cold foam. Gheiler estimates the bar staff has about 80 years of combined barista experience.
“This is not like a bakery that also does coffee,” he explains. “We’re very much a coffee shop as well.”
Photo by Evan Garcia @evihnz
Two years in the making
The idea started at the end of 2023, when Gheiler saw the rendering for the Flagler Street redesign and registered the Instagram handle that same day. In July 2024, Over Under managing partner Ashley Richardson invited him to vend at a summer block party market, and he named the booth Flagler Street Bakery. He has been talking to Over Under owner Brian Griffiths about a permanent version ever since.
Gheiler has been baking for eight years, starting at Gigi at 19 before stints at True Loaf in South Beach and the Barcelona Baker’s Guild. Most recently, he ran the bakery at Four, the North Miami collective in the old Paradis Books & Bread space. When that closed, he went back to Over Under and launched the Sunday coffee pop-up, Lazy Brew, which is where he found out downtown would show up for a bakery.
The bakery is small, with counter service and limited seating, in a storefront that was supposed to be a Cuban restaurant but never opened. He is easing in for now, calling this period a soft opening and holding back the most labor-intensive pop-up pastries until his staff settles into a good rhythm.
Flagler St. Bakery. 12 NE First Ave., Miami; flaglerstbakery.com.
