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New Yorkers hate waiting in line, so much so we’ve been known to outsource the practice.
As much as we hate it, though, we inadvertently end up in a few ourselves, reasoning that spending over an hour waiting for the chance to score free concert tickets or a box full of buzzy pastries is worth the wait. Speaking of pastries, the most coveted of them all at this moment come from Radio Bakery.
Since opening in 2023, Radio Bakery has generated quite the fan base. Born from the Rolo’s team, the Greenpoint bakery consistently draws a line of eager crowds craving pastry chef and co-owner Kelly Mencin’s baked goods, which often sell out before closing time.
Last March, Eater reported on the opening of a second location, this time in Prospect Heights. Nearly to the date of their announcement, the team debuted the novel bakery on March 3.
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Favorites from the original spot have carried over, including the everything spice focaccia, rhubarb and custard croissants and the cheesy pretzel bear claw. There are some new faces in the pastry window like the matcha mango morning bun and the lunchtime sweet peas sandwich with mint, feta and lime on focaccia, that are absolute must-tries as well.
The fervor behind the first Radio Bakery also carried over to the new location, with lines stretching around the block forcing folks to wait over an hour to grab some goods.
Our head of Global Head of Video, Delia Barth, decided to see if the line was worth the wait this weekend, braving 40-degree temps this past Saturday. She walked away with a ham and rosemary butter baguette, a chocolate chip cookie, brown butter corn cake and, her favorite, a burrata sandwich on focaccia.
"Radio Bakery is popular, like line literally around the block popular, for good reason," she says. "The focaccia alone is otherworldly in that it's crunchy, soft and somehow chewy. It has no business being this good. Everything on the menu is a hit though, sweet or savory, you're kind of always making the right call."
Yet, after an hour and 15-minute long wait, the native New Yorker admits that the wait, at the moment, is simply too long.
"I think nothing in the world is worth waiting that long for, but I would be willing to wait up to half-an-hour for that focaccia sandwich alone," she notes.
The second Radio Bakery location is one of the many buzzy bakery openings that already debuted this year. In January, for example, people flocked to the East Village’s Sunday Morning for its cinnamon-bun-only lineup. By February, crowds had shifted over to the West Village to welcome the second location of L'Appartement 4F. We can only imagine what April may bring.