Photos: Cuban Bakery Bringing Taste Of Miami To Bed-Stuy

BEDFORD STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A new bakery opening on Greene Avenue this week will bring Cuban pastries and coffee to Bed-Stuy. Restaurateur Ricardo Barreras will open a new bakery Thursday at 397 Greene Ave., next door to his restaurant Pilar Cuban Eatery.

Pilar Cuban Bakery will be a Miami-style cafe with pink walls and a grab-and-go window where people can pick up ham croquettes, guava and cream cheese pastelitos and house-baked Cuban bread.

“Our approach here is to really highlight and showcase Cuban ingredients, and use them in very creative ways,” Barreras told Eater, who first reported the bakery opening.

There will also be quick lunch items, such as sandwiches and Spanish pot pies with chorizo, and drinks like strong Cuban coffee and tropical shakes.

The bakery's name, which is shares with Barreras' eatery, is inspired by a fishing boat Ernest Hemingway had custom made in Coney Island in 1938, according to the restaurant website. The Pilar travelled from Brooklyn down to Key West and ultimately was harbored in Havana.

Pilar Cuban Eatery has earned shout-outs and praise from the New York Times and GQ, to name a few, since it opened in Bed-Stuy in 2010.

Barreras’ goal is to make the corner of Brooklyn corner at Greene and Bedford avenues, “the Cuban-est corner in NYC,” he reportedly said.

“Once you try a good croquette,” Barreras told Eater, “forget about it.”

Photos courtesy of Pilar Cuban Eatery photographers Lily Brown and Michael Tulipan