A new East Passyunk bakery offers hand tarts and colorful pastries

Twelve years ago, chef Erika Burke knew she would make her bakery dreams a reality some day. Back then, she was a student learning to make pastries at N.J.’s Atlantic Cape Community College, Academy of Culinary Arts.

“I knew — I said, ‘I want to own my own bakery/cafe one day,’” she recalled.

Today, Burke’s dream is manifested in a 1,700-square-foot brick-and-mortar on East Passyunk Avenue in Philadelphia. Erby’s Bakery soft opened Feb. 20 and currently offers a limited menu of Burke’s colorful pastries Friday to Sunday.

Blackberry hand tarts, cinnamon buns, plant-based spelt chocolate chunk cookies, cheddar scallion twists, and more sit in the display counter painted a light moss green. A handful of wooden chairs and an outdoor patio with chairs and tables let customers linger and enjoy baked goods and Càphê Roasters coffee.

The menu will change seasonally “once we find our groove,” Burke said. She plans to add breakfast sandwiches, salads, and small grazing plates — think “girl breakfast.” Folks can always expect vegan and gluten-free options, including a vegan Nashville hot sandwich with oyster mushrooms.

“My pastries are very fun and colorful — that’s how I like everything,” she said. “I wanted fun foods [on the menu]. I know it sounds so cliche, but I wanted [pastries] that are going to make you say, ‘Oh’ and question what makes them so good.”

Burke, 36, has worked in Jersey Shore and Philly kitchens since graduating culinary school and college in 2016.

Her first job in Philly was as a pizza cook at Pizzeria Vetri, where she fell in love with stretching dough. It led her to become a pastry chef at Porta in 2018, creating dessert and pasta offerings for their seasonal menus. A year later, she moved to the now-shuttered Essen Bakery as head baker. It was there that Burke’s baking took off, developing into a pop-up business.

“I was very fortunate to have [owner] Tova du Plessis as a boss,” she said. “I learned a ton from her, and she let me do pop-ups out of her kitchen.”

Burke began her pop-up Flakey AF at Rally Coffee in 2020, baking her hand tarts in Essen’s kitchens. She soon decided to leave Essen and pursue the business full time for a year.

But staying afloat and being self-employed was hard. In 2022, Burke stepped away from the kitchen and into the world of gambling. She became an online blackjack dealer for Evolution Gaming.

“It’s very taxing emotionally, and I was struggling with mental health,” she said. “I just wanted to step away and do something that I wasn’t so passionate about, something with structure where I didn’t need to make decisions — you just tell me and I’ll do it."

Then in 2024, Burke decided to return to the industry and landed a job as a production manager for Weckerly’s Ice Cream. Two years later, she was laid off.

Feeling discouraged by the industry, she decided “I’m not working in a kitchen again — so it’s either find a random job or look into getting my own place." Choosing the latter, she signed a lease for 1840 Passyunk Ave. and opened Erby’s three months after.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “It was really the push that I needed; getting laid off, honestly, was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Because Erby’s Bakery is Burke at its core, named after her childhood nickname, and represents her creativity without a boss to answer to.

“The whole project is about me being able to do my own thing,” she said. “It’s about giving me autonomy to bake what I want when I want.”