Dear Diner: Who makes ‘fabulous brioche’ and other buttery breads in Tacoma?

Welcome to another installment of “Dear Diner,” an advice column in which food writer Kristine Sherred answers your specific questions about the Tacoma-area dining scene and other food-and-drink topics. Submit a question anytime through this form.

Q: Croissants are good, but I’m in search of a fabulous brioche. Any ideas? — Lynette Miller, Tacoma

Croissants aren’t just good. When properly executed, the intricate, sumptuous, flaky flattened butter wonders of the world are nothing short of incredible!

Tacoma is indeed in short supply of the golden, buttery soft bread that is brioche, forged from a pastry-inspired dough with roots dating to the 13th century. My mind immediately jumped to brioche loaves — the kind that creates restaurant-worthy French toast at home. Outside of prefab, vacuum-sealed versions you might see in the bakery section of specialty grocers (Metropolitan Market, Tacoma Boys, Marlene’s Market & Deli, Central Co-op, Harbor Greens), such rectangles are nowhere to be found in the immediate vicinity.

Even more curious in Lynette’s question is the flawed premise that Tacoma is a beacon of viennoiserie. Le sigh. It’s not.

The city has just two brick-and-mortar bakeries making croissants — three if you count Olympia Coffee, whose Seattle-based Moonrise Bakery has fed each of its shops, including Proctor, delightful pastries since 2021. Corina Bakery often has croissants in the case, but their specialty leans toward cakes, cookies and other treats that don’t subscribe to the lamination category. When Three Hearts opened in 2024, it became the most reliable leader in local lamination. Seven days a week the breakfast-and-lunch restaurant opens with a pastry case bursting with croissants and cruffins (the trendy towering version baked in a muffin tin, generously sprinkled with sugar for an ever crispier exterior, whose identity falls somewhere between the O.G. and a kouign-amann), as well as cookies, tarts and — praise be — brioche.

The lack of traditional brioche seems, I’m sorry to say, par for the course for a city not wholly bereft of but assuredly lacking in, for lack of a better term, “artisan” bakeries.

I see bakeries as I do coffee shops: No, you cannot have too many. Each can master their specialty. Just like every neighborhood needs a coffee shop, every neighborhood deserves a bakery. It’s fine if the two are under one roof — better in fact!

The temperature has graciously warmed in the past couple of years.

In addition to Three Hearts, Balloon Roof Baking Co. — which has all but maxed out baking sourdough loaves, cookies, cruffins and more in a production-only space in Fife, sold at local farmers markets — is on track to open a glimmering new storefront on Sixth Ave this year.

Dough Boy Bakery, which operates under a cottage license (meaning a home-based kitchen), has drawn fans to the Tacoma Farmers Market on summer Thursdays and the Haunted Farmers Market in South Tacoma every other Saturday.

Bas Que Bakery, a shining light of Tacoma’s culinary newcomers in 2025, has turned sourdough inside-out in a petite kitchen with Blodgett deck ovens under Berliner Beerhall.

A few others, like Spilled Butter Desserts and Girl Loves Cake Dessert, have nurtured niches in whimsical treats sold to local coffee shops and macarons available to pre-order and often found at seasonal markets and pop-up events. Lobo Bakery has also amassed fans with clever flavor combinations in various laminated forms, as well as a very subtle, real-almond croissant.

But it still kind of feels like bakery nerds have to go out of their way, or at least know where to look.

When I asked Lynette for more background on her brioche quest, she explained that she grew up in a rural part of New York state — “a food wonderland!” where brioche was easy to find.

“I always look for them, usually without success,” she said, nodding to a loaf at Trader Joe’s (sorry-not-sorry, TJ’s is assuredly not as fresh as the local oven) and the occasional bun. “But none of them live up to my memories.”

She longs for the traditional brioche à tête, a shape she accurately described in her email as “with a fluted base and the round ball on top.”

“I realize I’m probably not going to get that here. Sigh! But I’d take a reasonable substitute,” she concluded.

As a food writer who quite literally plans her days around bakeries, especially when traveling, I get it. The below list might not entail the classic, unadulterated brioche of Lynette’s memories, but it highlights the beautiful brioche buns at Three Hearts and some brioche-adjacent breads, made on-site and by hand, with a similarly sweet backbone.

Three Hearts

• 1116 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma 253-201-7742, threeheartstacoma.com
• Daily 7 a.m.-3 p.m.

The double-couple team that created Three Hearts — Will Eder and Jenah Garrett, Jeffery and Maggie Hellis — built the daily daytime destination they wished they could frequent. In teaser posts, they focused so much on the baking program that people mistakenly thought they were opening a bakery, not a restaurant. While the hot food from the open kitchen, the coffee and cocktails from the bustling bar, and the positively effervescent atmosphere provide plenty of fodder to wake up a little early and meet a friend for brunch on a Tuesday, the baking program holds equal, if not superior, stature.

Chef Jeffery Hellis developed the foundation, and last spring, pastry chef Alec Young took the helm. After culinary school, Young trained at Blackbird Bakery on Bainbridge, which has served the island since 1999. His approach to baking is meticulous yet laid back, with a commitment to not cutting corners.

Each batch begins with poolish, a flour-yeast-water starter that Young lets rest for around three hours, mixed for about 10 minutes on a medium speed with eggs, yolks, milk and a bit more dried yeast. The gluten strands must be strong, explained Young, before adding any butter.

“This dough includes a lot of butter,” he said, pointing to the five big blocks, at room temperature, on the stainless steel work bench shaking under the whir of the countertop mixer.

He chops the butter with a bench scraper into cubes, adding one at a time into the flour mixture, until each piece is fully incorporated. Slowly but surely, the dough transforms from a clumpy blob into a “nice smooth dough,” almost silken in texture and appearance.

“It’s super-duper stretchy,” he said. “It kinda wants to break.”

He pulls it up out of the bowl a foot or so. It doesn’t.

The batched dough then rests in the cooler for most of the day, until Hellis arrives around 7 p.m. to start shaping each bun into baking trays. A delicate dimple makes room for the filling — Three Hearts offers sweet and savory options. During our visit, the savory flavors featured house bacon jam, pesto and confit potatoes in one and goat cheese, romesco and the same potatoes in another, finished with cheese, a whole egg cracked just before heading into the oven, and flaky sea salt.

The enriched dough, which historians say gained more and more butter to please the royal class, accepts sauces and fillings in a way that harder sourdoughs or softer dinner buns don’t. Picture babka, swirled with chocolate-tahini paste, or challah studded with seeds — goods also largely absent from the regional scene due to a dearth of Jewish bakeries.

Three Hearts’ buns bake for about 30 minutes, until the dough is golden-brown and the egg is aptly cooked. The beauty of brioche — a just-crispy-enough crust revealing a buttery (but not too buttery), fluffy, pull-apart interior — is that the dough is neither pastry nor bread.

“Brioche is very specific,” said Young. “It lives between batter and dough.”

Three Hearts also stocks the cases at local cafes including Bluebeard Coffee (both cafes), Coffeezaun Espresso, Civic Roasters, The Method Skateboards and Coffee, Jin Jin Matcha, Curran Coffee, and Papaver Roaster House in Olympia.

Surtidoras Bakery

• 1314 E 72nd St, Tacoma, 253-650-0104, surtidorasbakery.com
• Monday-Thursday 8:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Friday-Sunday 8 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
• Also at 1702 Auburn Way N, Auburn, 253-363-3210

Conchas, core to the pan dulce category of Mexican baked goods, are constructed from a brioche-like dough, finished with a streusel topping. Any panaderia will have the seashell-shaped bread, but head to Surtidoras Bakery, with locations in Auburn and as of last year Tacoma’s South End, for a fresh one with vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. You can also try the pretty pink varietal stuffed with cream and strawberries at Dulce Cafe in downtown Puyallup.

Bas Que Bakery

• 112 s 24th St., Tacoma, instagram.com/getbasque
• Friday-Monday 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

DJ Park and Seong Hyun Lee hit the ground seriously running with their new downtown bakery. The theme ostensibly “explores Spanish flavors,” but as they told me last December, the climate of the Basque region that inspired them aligns surprisingly closely with that of the PNW. Crops like quince, chestnuts and pears, which they’ve incorporated into their all-sourdough, Washington-wheat handheld breads, grow in both places. The case’s contents change day by day, but often it features a round brioche bun, stuffed with some sort of fruit or veg, as well as the likes of a cinnamon concha and torrijas, a Spanish version of brioche-based French toast.

Midsommar Bakery

• Mobile bakery with select wholesale and special event ordering, midsommarbakery.square.site
• Proctor Farmers Market, Saturdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (Feb. 14 and 28, March 14 and 28, then weekly starting April 4-Dec. 19), proctorfarmersmarket.com
• Delightful Neighborhood Market, 4818 N 45th St., Tacoma, delightfulmkt.com
• Outer Dark Coffee, 750 Market St., Tacoma, outerdarkcoffee.com

The team behind Midsommar Bakery has steadily blossomed since launching at the Proctor Farmers Market in 2024. (Owners Thea Billing and Noah Citron bake at Sons of Norway.) The traditional Swedish recipes for kardemummabullar (cardamom buns) is also akin to a brioche but adds milk and of course bountiful spices. The dough is rolled flat, sliced into strips, and then twisted into a pretty little knot. Midsommar’s usual menu also includes a cinnamon-sugar version if you’re for some reason averse to cardamom, as well as an almond-orange, vanilla (known as vaniljbullar) with cream, and seasonal variations.

Bon Bon Bakery

• 9122 South Tacoma Way, 253-267-1353, instagram.com/bonbonbakery2021
• Daily 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

This Korean bakery, although one of several in Lakewood, stands out for its selection of chapssal (rice flour doughnuts) and affordable, well-designed cakes, but a few other items harken to brioche. Look for the bulbous buns smiling up at you with whipped-cream teeth. A cousin to the Roman maritozzo or maritozzi, the soft, fluffy dough is part-milk bread, part-brioche, part-doughnut — only it’s baked, not fried. You might also pick up a squared loaf of milk bread, which involves much less butter than brioche but still, a slice of this beaut is an ideal sandwich or French toast vessel.

The Cat & Rabbitt Cake Shop

• 111 E Stewart Ave., Puyallup, 253-693-9463, thecatandrabbitt.com
• Monday 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Obviously Terryn Abbitt and Julia Brown’s cake shop is beloved for its massive, multilayered slices of cake in so many flavors we’ve all lost count, but the iykyk crowd piles into this Puyallup bakery for cinnamon rolls every weekend. They begin with a brioche dough, made in big enough batches that rolling them out, layering the cinnamon love, and assembling them into their almost-as-big-as-the-box squares consumes an entire prep table. Each one runs $14.50, but I promise you these cinnamon rolls are the ultimate deal. Availability is limited to Saturdays and Sundays only because, well, see above!

Emish Market

• 2040 70th Ave. E, Fife, 253-262-6070, emishmarket.com
• Daily 6 a.m.-midnight

The in-house bakery at this Ukrainian market and cafe does it all, from loaves of bread (wheat, rye, pumpernickel) to bite-sized, caramel-filled walnut cookies and honey cake. Head past the produce aisle to find the day’s selection, including what they call “vanilla rolls,” essentially a type of brioche bun sprinkled with a little streusel topping for good measure. They keep well for several days sealed in their bag or Tupperware.

Kevin’s Italian

• Cottage bakery based in South Tacoma
• Pre-order for pickup only, kevinsitalian.square.site

This might be the biggest stretch, but it felt right to highlight this awesome cottage bakery in this list with no clear answers! Kevin Pemoulie quietly launched his home-based baking business a couple of years ago after 20-plus years in professional kitchens. As he jokes on his website, he is not, in fact, Italian, but he is from New Jersey. If you’re an East Coaster, or long for East Coast and/or Italian foods in your life, beeline to his website to order the crackly-to-cloudlike focaccias. His default vehicle is an 8-inch round pan, which lends a bubblier, poofier bread, but you can opt for a 9x13 rectangle if you so desire. Flavors include rosemary and sea salt, orange and green olive, and simple salt and pepper. The semolina sesame bread is also among the finest sandwich breads you can find in Tacoma.

As mentioned above regarding “going out of your way,” you must pre-order online by Tuesday at 5 p.m. for Friday pickup or Wednesday at 5 p.m. for Saturday pickup. You can also advance order up to 90 days out. Choose a pickup time in the windows provided and Pemoulie will emerge from the house with your order when you text that you have arrived. Thank me later!

This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 5:15 AM.