A Recipe for Success

By David W. Brown

Our Gentilly Cake was invented by our former bakery director, Chaya Conrad, who today is the owner of Bywater Bakery at the corner of Dauphine and Independence Streets in New Orleans, with her husband, Alton Osborne. The bakery couldn’t be busier. “We do a little bit of everything: We bake bread, we do breakfast pastries, we do a light lunch and breakfast, and we have a big — very big — cake business.” And yes, that includes king cakes. There are vegan and gluten-free menus, Bagel Fridays, Breakfast Gumbo(!), and many sweets and savories. They even have yaka mein for when you’ve had too much to drink the night before—but go easy on Tuesday evenings: The bakery is closed on Wednesdays.

Since Bywater Bakery opened in 2017 it has become a community hub for the neighborhood, and to that end, it even hosts live music on weekends and sells paintings by local artists on its walls. “Everybody from the neighborhood comes,” Conrad said—and they bring their dogs with them. “You know, we see everybody! I know all the dogs—I know the dogs more than I know the people.” Her culinary skills extend even to fourlegged friends: Visiting dogs get bacon.