Artisan bread in Palo Alto

Palo Alto is a better bread town than it looks from University Avenue. One bakery mills its own flour on the El Camino Real side of town. A French boulangerie at Stanford Shopping Center turns out baguettes all day. A 1923 diner bakes its own loaves and buns. Two small bakers bring naturally leavened bread to the Saturday farmers market. Within a short drive, Menlo Park adds a European-style bakery that has baked since 1981.

This guide is about bread itself: which loaf to buy where, what it costs and how to plan a bread run. For croissants and morning pastry, see our pastries and croissants guide. Every bakery here was confirmed on its own website, ordering page or the farmers market's 2026 vendor list in late October or early November 2026. Prices are the ones each bakery posted then and can change.

Bread at a glance

Manresa Bread: the sourdough stop

Manresa Bread is the bread bakery most locals mean when they say sourdough. It mills its own organic flour and ferments its loaves slowly, the traditional route to a tangy flavor, an open crumb and a dark, crackly crust. The Palo Alto cafe is at 855 El Camino Real, Suite 138, in Town & Country Village. Its location page lists hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The website splits ordering into pre-order, same-day pickup, delivery and shipping, with separate links for each of its five cafes: Los Gatos, Los Altos, Campbell, Palo Alto and Santa Cruz. Pre-order is the safe choice for a specific loaf on a Saturday or before a holiday. Same-day pickup works when you decide at breakfast that you want bread for dinner. Loaf prices appear on the ordering pages and change with the season, so check there rather than relying on an old receipt.

Town & Country has its own parking lots, which makes Manresa the easiest bread stop in town by car. Our Town & Country Village guide covers the rest of the center.

La Baguette: the widest bread list

La Baguette at 170 Stanford Shopping Center posts the longest bread menu in Palo Alto. Its classic baguette is made from hand-folded dough and costs $6.50, as does the 9-grain baguette. The epi, a baguette cut to look like a wheat stalk, is $7 and easy to pull apart at the table.

The loaf list goes well beyond French bread. Country bread, a 9-grain loaf and a whole wheat loaf with honey are each $8.50. A cranberry walnut loaf and a rosemary and Kalamata olive loaf are $9. Brioche and an orange butter loaf topped with caramelized sugar are $9.50. Rolls cost $3 for a plain French roll and $3.75 for a cranberry walnut roll. The bakery opens at 8 a.m. daily and closes at 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 6 p.m. on Sunday, so it is one of the few places where you can still buy a fresh baguette after work. Our Stanford Shopping Center guide covers parking.

Bread downtown

Mademoiselle Colette, 499 Lytton Avenue

Mademoiselle Colette is known for pastry, but its Palo Alto menu lists a homemade yeast-leavened baguette for $5.50 and an olive bread. Its sandwiches use the same baguette. For Thanksgiving 2026 the bakery added a Fall Harvest Bread to its holiday pre-order list: an artisan sourdough loaf with pumpkin, pecans, cranberries and a hint of maple. The shop closes at 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday and at 1 p.m. on Sunday, so it is a morning stop.

Palo Alto Creamery, 566 Emerson Street

The Palo Alto Creamery says all of its bread, bagels and pastries are made on site. Few people think of a diner as a bakery, but its menu sells loaves to take home: white, wheat, sourdough and marble rye at $9 each and brioche at $12. Six dinner rolls cost $6.60 and six French rolls $7.25. These are soft, everyday breads rather than crusty hearth loaves, which makes them the better pick for sandwiches and toast. The Creamery opens daily at 8 a.m.

Bread at the farmers market

The downtown Saturday market on Gilman Street lists two bread bakers among its 2026 vendors. Little Sky Bakery is a Menlo Park bakery that sells naturally leavened breads, pastries and sandwiches. It also has a counter at State Street Market in Los Altos. Panorama Bakery sells artisan breads and pastries.

Market bread rewards an early start. Loaves often go first, before the fruit stalls get busy. Bring a cloth bag and plan to buy for two or three days, since the stall is only there on Saturday. Our farmers markets guide has times and parking for both city markets.

Nearby: Menlo Park and Los Altos

Outside Palo Alto, two more bakeries are worth a short drive. Both are within about 5 miles of downtown.

• Woodside Bakery and Cafe, Menlo Park. This family-owned European-style bakery has baked since 1981 and now sits in the Sharon Heights Shopping Center at 325 Sharon Park Drive, off Sand Hill Road. Its website says the bakers start at 3 a.m. under head pastry chef Jesus Mendoza and that gluten-free items are a specialty. It takes advance orders by phone at 650-854-6207 and runs online catering orders. Its site has not been redesigned in years, so call before a special trip.
• Little Sky Bakery at State Street Market, Los Altos. If you miss the Saturday market, the Little Sky counter in the downtown Los Altos food hall sells its loaves and baked goods through the week. Our Los Altos food guide lists the other stalls.

Manresa Bread also runs a cafe in Los Altos, which can be handy if you live on that side of town.

Which loaf for which job

• Toast and sandwiches all week. A slow-fermented sourdough keeps longest. Buy a whole loaf from Manresa and slice as you go.
• Dinner party or cheese board. Two baguettes or an epi from La Baguette, bought the same afternoon.
• Soft sandwiches for kids. The Creamery's white or wheat loaf, or its brioche for French toast.
• Holiday table. Rolls from La Baguette or the Creamery plus a fruit and nut loaf for breakfast the next day.
• Thanksgiving stuffing. Buy a country loaf two days early and let it go stale on the counter.

Keeping bread fresh

1. Skip the plastic for crusty bread. Plastic traps moisture and turns a crisp crust leathery. Use a paper bag, a cloth bag or a bread box.
2. Cut side down. Stand a cut loaf on its cut face on a wooden board for the first day or two.
3. Freeze in slices. Slice a sourdough on day two, freeze it flat in a sealed bag and toast slices straight from frozen.
4. Revive a baguette. Run a day-old baguette under the tap for a second and warm it in a 375°F oven for about five minutes.
5. Mind the fridge. Refrigerating bread makes it go stale faster. Freeze instead.

Planning a bread run

Bread is a morning errand. Manresa, La Baguette and Mademoiselle Colette all open at 8 a.m. Popular loaves thin out by early afternoon on weekends. A Saturday loop can start at the downtown market, move to Mademoiselle Colette on Lytton Avenue and finish at Town & Country or Stanford Shopping Center, both of which have free surface parking. On weekdays, La Baguette's 7 p.m. closing makes it the easiest after-work stop.

For gluten-free bread, Woodside Bakery advertises gluten-free items. Our gluten-free guide covers other options. Bakeries share flour, nuts, seeds, eggs and dairy across their equipment, so anyone with a serious allergy should ask before buying.

Frequently asked questions