‘Little treat culture’ is fueling a Philly bakery boom. Here are a baker’s dozen new spots to get that bread.

Industry observers are seeing it. You may have seen it. Chris DiPiazza has seen it, too.

“Bakeries are popping up everywhere,” he said, noting that at Headhouse Farmer’s Market last weekend, it felt like “every other stall was a bakery.”

The landscape was much different in 2015 when DiPiazza started Mighty Bread Co. in the Center for Culinary Enterprises in West Philadelphia. The bakery later moved to 1211 Gerritt St. in 2017 for production and retail, followed by the cafe in 2021.

Meanwhile, it seems, everyone is saying it with flour, from the national cookie chains with their leavened marketing budgets to the mom-and-pop pop-ups working out of home kitchens with cottage licenses.

Mighty Bread has seen its wholesale business double in the last year, DiPiazza said, and his retail sales have shown steady 50% growth almost every year. DiPiazza just signed a lease for a satellite location at 17th and Pine Streets in Rittenhouse, his first shop outside of South Philadelphia. Mighty Bread, replacing a recently shuttered satellite location of J’aime Bakery, will offer a coffee bar and a full line of pastries, bread, sandwiches, quiche, and the like this fall.

DiPiazza had been looking for a new space. “It’s a corner space in Rittenhouse Square,” his broker, Stefanie Gabel of MSC, said she told him. “What more could you want?”

Several factors are driving this rise in baking. Analysts say bakeries fit into what is known as small-box economics — a fancy term to describe modest footprints that entail lower build-out costs than full-scale restaurants. Grand View Research says the global bakery products market, valued at $495.6 billion in 2023, is projected to reach $714.1 billion by 2030 — a compound annual growth rate of 5.4%.

Bakeries also reflect an evolution of the third-wave coffee movement, analysts say. It’s one thing for a coffee shop to offer good coffee, but customers demand good pastries, too.

The United States is catching up to Europe’s strong cafe bakery culture, DiPiazza said.

DiPiazza said an uptick in snack-centric habits are an important factor. Customers don’t seem to mind paying for a “little treat” several times a week — as opposed to a splurge.

Baking is not for everyone. Ross Nickerson, who owns Function Coffee Labs in Bella Vista with his wife, Megan McCusker, called it “the most difficult part of the business to manage.” He said the economics rarely make sense for a single cafe.

Nickerson is also a partner in Vibrant Coffee Roasters, which operates a bakery in its Rittenhouse location that also provides pastries for Vibrant’s Lombard Street cafe and for Function. This makes the bakery side “actually kind of work,” he said. Viewed another way, having house-baked products is what he called “a point of differentiation” that can draw customers.

Besides Mighty Bread, here is a baker’s dozen of recent openings and expansions in the local baking world:

The Biscuit Lady: In three years, Tara Torrence has moved from her home kitchen to a shared space in Wissahickon to a freestanding restaurant in Plymouth Meeting. She just signed a lease for 39 W. Gay St. in West Chester, where she hopes to open her second shop in 2026.

The Bread Room: Ellen Yin is looking at next week for the soft-opening of her bakery/workshop/event space at 834 Chestnut St., around the corner from High Street Restaurant and Bar.

The Brew Room: Eleni and Danny Chrisidis plan to open their Greek-themed coffee house any day in a former karate studio at 6 W. Lancaster Ave. in Ardmore.

The Buttery: Once known as Malvern Buttery when it was in (well) Malvern, this coffee shop and bakery just opened its third location, at the Ardmore Farmers Market in Suburban Square. Another satellite, at the Malvern Regional Rail station, opened last year.

By Zena: South Jersey’s Zena Demirceviren has opened a new shop, specializing in cheesecakes, pistachio rolls, and baklava plus savory foods, at 41 E. Main St. in downtown Moorestown.

Cafe Neos: Annalise Long and Kurt Benkurt have revamped their Daniel’s Restaurant at 16 E. First Ave. in Conshohocken into a bright cafe in front with coffees, pastries, light food, and cocktails. Neos Americana, the main dining room, will begin offering dinner on Oct. 20.

Copihue Bakehouse: Baker and Chilean native Cote Tapia-Marmugi has set up a cute storefront at 58 E. Butler Ave. in downtown Ambler with all sorts of Chilean foods — all vegetarian — including empanadas, milhojas, pie de limóns, and kuchens, plus beverages.

Crust Vegan Bakery: Meagan Benz is planning a short but dramatic move later this fall from Manayunk to 4200 Ridge Ave. in East Falls that will combine the current storefront (now at 4409 Main St.) and the nearby commercial kitchen under one, much larger roof.

Darnel’s Cakes: Kyle Cuffie-Scott is in the soft-open phase of his second cafe, inside the lobby at 990 Spring Garden St.

Haraz Coffee House: Philadelphia’s second location of Haraz, a Yemeni coffee house, is now open at 23 W. Girard Ave. in Fishtown. Co-owner Enaas Sultan is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef applying French technique to her Dubai chocolate brownies, pistachio-raspberry tarts, za’atar puffs, and tahini chocolate cake.

Kouklet Bakehouse: Baker Mardhory Santos-Cepeda is now selling her Brazilian delicacies out of her new South Philadelphia baking facility, giving customers a second option.

Seaforest Bakeshop: Self-taught baker Sue Lee, originally from Seoul, South Korea, is in the first few weeks in business at 625 S. 16th St. with sweet and savory goods.

Pastry chef Em Wilson and Bake Bake Philly’s Christina Lower: The independent bakers share a workspace in Frankford’s Globe Dye Works.