Bread and Belief
On $2 baguettes, viral tomato croissants, and the philosophies baked into Fort Greene’s ovens.
Rows of brownstones, strollers rolling toward the park, run clubs pounding DeKalb’s pavement, neighbors perched on stoops with baguettes tucked under their arms: this is a Fort Greene morning and the first stop was La Bicyclette Bakery.
To the eye, La Bicyclette is just a modest neighborhood bread shop just steps from Fort Greene Park. By 10am, a small line had formed, with regulars perched outside at the café tables like it was part of their morning ritual. I slipped in quickly to caffeinate and grab my first pastry before the options - tomato tarts, ham-and-cheese croissants, still-warm baguette sandwiches - disappeared.
Outside on the bakery’s bench sat Tove Voke, La Bicyclette’s general manager, coffee in hand as he watched the morning unfold. To a passerby, he could have been any neighbor starting their day. To us, he became the storyteller, unraveling his own path and the bakery’s history.
An artist from the UK with no kitchen background, Tove stumbled into La Bicyclette in 2019, when it was just one Williamsburg shop and two employees: him and Flo, the man behind the bread.
Flo’s path started early; by 11 he was baking bread, and by 13 he was already an apprentice in France. At 16, he was certified to run a bakery, and over the next eight years he carried his craft across the globe, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, each oven shaping the baker he is today.
Through it all, his philosophy has never wavered: bread should be for everyone. A baguette at La Bicyclette will always cost $2 — no matter the tariffs, trends or otherwise.
When the pandemic hit, it was just Flo and Tove. Considered “essential workers” by the city’s standards, they kept the ovens on, opened the doors only on certain days, pared hours back to mornings, and found a rhythm they never abandoned: 8am–1pm, bread until it’s gone. That structure became the framework for expansion.
Tove talked about the journey from one location to now four - and their instant virality that occurred after Action Bronson’s visit and F*k That’s Delicious review, which literally doubled sales overnight and catapulted the bakery from neighborhood locale to tourist destination.
When it came time to expand, the limited hours enabled a cost-friendly shared-space model - where in two of their four locations - La Bicyclette operates the bakery by day until it becomes a wine bar space at night - Petit Paulette in their Fort Greene location and Entre Nous in Clinton Hill.
Tove shared how this setup keeps costs lower on rent and staff, while giving them room to grow and mentally focus on other ambitions including their wholesale bread business where they sell directly to some of the best restaurants in the city.
Tomato tart in hand, we walked down South Portland Ave towards a bakery with a different kind of energy - louder, more experimental, more American - but also carrying a similar accidental-viral story.
The line stretched down the block, but inside it felt like a red carpet moment - straight passed the crowds and into the staff-only kitchen at Radio Bakery where stations moved in perfect rhythm: croissants sliced open for sandwiches, focaccia slathered with aioli and coleslaw, trays pulled hot from the oven and stacked with golden pastries before finding their place in the glass case with perfect choreography.
Tucked behind the bakery kitchen sits a a perfect staff-only patio and garden where one of the head pastry chefs, Nina Subhas, gestured us to before sharing Radio’s journey.
Before the lines out the door, Nina shared that Radio was simply a test concept birthed by Kelly Mencin, the head pastry chef at Rolo’s in Ridgewood and now owner at Radio. What began as a weekend pop-up out of the Rolo’s kitchen - testing croissants layered with pistachio and focaccia sandwiches piled high - first impressed fellow staff and then quickly drew crowds too big to ignore. Once Kelly developed a full end-to-end menu, it was only a matter of time before she found a space in Greenpoint to take the concept full time.
As for the name, the team noticed a roll gate at the India Street space they assumed had once belonged to a Polish radio station. The story turned out to be off (it was actually a television company), but the name stuck. ‘Radio’ felt right for a bakery just steps from Transmitter Park.
Mencin’s approach is as disciplined as it is inventive, Nina described. After training in pastry and working at kitchens like Bouchon, she envisioned a bakery with a tightly focused menu rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Radio avoids muffins, cakes, and cookies, and instead, it leans hard into croissants, focaccias, and sandwiches, executed with precision and flair.
The intentionality, paired with a concept of unclassically ‘New York’ pastries, is what makes Radio distinct: everything-focaccia lox sandwiches, breakfast focaccia BECs, and the heirloom tomato tart that accidentally went viral - drawing lines down the block and cementing Radio as one of the city’s defining bakeries of this generation.
Beyond bold flavors and textures, Radio’s pastries are deeply seasonal. Nina described how the team works closely with local purveyors, watching produce week by week: how long the tomatoes will hold in late summer, when the first apples ripen in fall. The result is a menu that evolves in real time, swapping their tomato tart for brown butter apple croissants the moment the season turns or even holding off on selling the tomato pastry until peak season truly commences.
By the time Radio expanded to Prospect Heights, that rhythm of discipline and experimentation was already in motion refining ideas like mango-matcha morning buns without ever diluting what makes Radio, Radio.
Walking down Flatbush, baguette under one arm and tomato tart in the other, I couldn’t shake the feeling that these weren’t just bakeries but lessons in craft, conviction, and authenticity. Flo’s $2 baguette philosophy and Kelly’s tight, disciplined menu and unique point of view both prove the value of staying true to what you believe. And, when virality does strike, it isn’t about chasing the moment but adapting to the circumstances and being grounded enough to let it find you.
I need Radio Bakery to start a loyalty program so I can start cashing in
“Bread and Belief” struck a cord - bread is the staff of life ! Reading your
article I can smell the freshly baked loaves - how delicious your writing.
Thank you MN