Bake Sum, a celebrated Asian-inspired bakery, has expanded to Alameda

A buzzy Oakland bakeshop has opened an outpost in Alameda, serving Asian-inspired viennoiseries including a New York Times-feted croissant-musubi crossover.

Bake Sum debuted its second location this May inside the Alameda Marketplace, at 1650 Park St., expanding on its original presence in Oakland’s Grand Lake district. On this month’s menu are jasmine-tea milk buns, black-sesame snickerdoodles and halo-halo croissants, a play on the favorite Filipino dessert. The drinks include drip coffee, masala chai, hojicha lattes and an espresso tonic made with calamansi lime.

Bake Sum, whose name is a play on dim sum, was founded by Joyce Tang, who previously interned at a three-star Michelin restaurant in Spain. In the Bay Area, she was inspired to launch a shop that echoed her younger self’s love of eating at bakeries in Oakland’s Chinatown.

Tang previously told The Mercury News that she has two rules for baking: the products should be beautiful, and they should mean something to the staff of predominantly Asian and female bakers.

Bake Sum specializes in viennoiseries, which typically are moderately sweet and exist on the baked-goods spectrum somewhere between bread and pastry. One of its popular offerings is the okonomiyaki danish, a twist on Japan’s everything-in-the-fridge savory pancake, here made with roasted cabbage, bonito flakes and sweet-onion Mornay sauce.

In 2024, Bake Sum impressed the panel on “Check, Please! Bay Area,” where its founder offered insights like “There are 27 layers of butter in every single croissant” and “I have been told that sometimes our flavors really punch you in the face.” Fans of the bakeshop include not just locals but also The New York Times, which cited its Spam “Croissubi” as one of the “26 Best Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2024.”

The Alameda shop is open from the morning until when things sell out, which online reviewers have noted is very fast. The bakery has announced that it plans to soon expand its hours.

Donna Layburn, the president of the Alameda Marketplace, said the shopping complex had a lot of contenders to fill a spot for a new bakery. But it was “kind of an easy” decision to choose Bake Sum.

“They have a strong local presence, a unique and complementary offering, and they fit the space,” Layburn says. “They exemplify what we try to capture here: that life, magic and community can all be shared through a bite of good food. They’ve got the awards to back it up, too. Being a fellow woman-owned business was also a big bonus.”

Details: Open 9 a.m. until sold out Fridays-Sundays at 1650 Park St., Alameda; bakesum.com and instagram.com/bakesumpastries.