NEW ORLEANS 🥐 It’s easy to get hyped about the creative treats at this bakery in New Orleans, like the coconutty kaya buns, cheesy crawfish croissant sandwiches, and muffuletta breadsticks. Our advice: Go early, try whatever special they’re doing, and order as many pastries that are socially acceptable to eat at a time. They have a couple of tables outside that are ideal for snacking, drinking one of their amazing lattes, and gazing out on to Washington Square.

NASHVILLE 🥐 This daytime spot in Nashville serves a gravity-defying BEC made with a square croissant and onion jalapeno jam, but your visit would be incomplete without a stop over at the pastry case. Here, you’ll find Cinnamon Toast Crunch snickerdoodles that could eclipse the sun, churro croissants made with dulce de leche cream and Mexican hot chocolate, and oatmeal cookie sandwiches stuffed with brown butter frosting.

NYC 🥐 There are almost always weekend lines at Radio Bakery, but it moves fast (and the wait is worth it). The menu has an entire section dedicated to laminated pastries like twice baked pistachio or triple chocolate croissants with chocolate dough, interior bits and glaze. But savory stuff isn’t overlooked here, either—mushroom croissants, scallion sesame twists, and roasted asparagus sandwiches made with their focaccia or stirato bread are great to bring for a picnic at Transmitter Park.

HOUSTON 🥐 If you distilled Houston down into a bakery, it would probably look a little like Koffeteria. There’s an infusion of Cambodian flavors, but other quintessential Houston cultures are represented, too, like Vietnamese, Mexican, Chinese, and Thai. The front counter is always crammed with people craning their necks toward the pastry case filled with croissants and buns that smell of lemongrass or anise. The food is whimsical, and unpredictable, but somehow it always works.

BOSTON 🥐 Rubato is a Hong Kong-style daytime cafe that inspires us to brave Boston traffic at lunchtime for fried chicken-stuffed bolo baos, lava egg yolk French toast, and fluffy steamed baos. The buttery baked buns have a sugary top that creates an amazing savory-sweet combination, and the crisp airy youtiao dipped into congee or house soy milk is how we wish we could start every morning.

PORTLAND, ME 🥐 Norimoto Bakery is an unassuming spot in a quiet neighborhood of Portland, Maine, but they’re consistently churning out some of the most impressive baked goods in the area. Pastries like honey caramel black sesame kouign amann and dashi custard quiche are textbook examples of perfect technique and break up the monotony of butter and folded dough. Their cinnamon roll adds some complexity to the familiar sweet treat—maple gooey butter and orange sugar replaces traditional frosting.

LOS ANGELES 🥐 Sweets like yuzu sponge cakes and red bean sweet rolls are easy to box up and take home at Coin De Rue in LA, but you’re more likely to house those pastries inside while nursing a dalgona coffee. This Korean bakery’s calling card is the green onion pesto loaf, a gigantic scored bread that looks like a garlic knot fell into a vat of radioactive waste and mutated into the Hulk version of itself. You’ll want to carve out some time (and bring some friends) to enjoy this masterpiece.

SAN FRANCISCO 🥐 Butter & Crumble in San Francisco is a palace of all things pastry. And everyone knows it—the block-long lines of butter enthusiasts gather daily for impeccable croissants. The ones here are light and crackly, with inner layers so thin they’re transparent. Know that a visit here is null and void if you don’t order the pistachio cardamom croissant: It’s dusted with sugar and piped full of velvety pistachio cream you’ll want to eat by the scoop.

ATLANTA 🥐 Leftie Lee’s in the Atlanta metro area switches up traditional Asian bakery offerings with ube sweet buns and Everything But the Bagel buns. There are lots of Korean, Japanese, Cuban, and Southern flavors at play in treats like kimchi brie milk bread danishes and guava cream cheese danish croissants. A lot is happening within each pastry, but each bite has a balanced sweetness. On weekends, get there before 10am to try their Korean fried chicken and gravy with a kimchi biscuit.

WASHINGTON, DC 🥐 There are some bakeries where you must get one particular thing, because it’s the very best thing. But at Rose Ave Bakery in DC, order the entire menu. This spot sets the standard for sugary confections like tangy passion fruit donuts dusted in raspberry sugar and sticky caramel ube kouign amanns. The cafe is always packed, and they often sell out, but it’s worth the effort to show up early and grab a flaky curry butternut squash tart.