A standout bakery and café known for exceptional pastries, bread, and coffee — one of the best casual breakfast and lunch spots in town.
Why It Belongs on the List
Persephone Bakery is a Jackson institution and, by wide consensus, the finest bakery between San Francisco and Chicago — a small café on East Broadway that opened with the explicit ambition of bringing Parisian bakery standards to a Wyoming mountain town and has been executing on that ambition so consistently that it earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination (Outstanding Bakery, Casual). The pastry cases are the main event: kouign-amann (the caramelized Breton butter cake that very few American bakeries attempt and fewer execute well), pain au chocolat made with Valrhona chocolate, croissants with the shatter-and-pull texture that requires days of layering and proper butter, and seasonal fruit tarts built on properly blind-baked shells. The bread program uses long fermentation in the sourdough tradition. The breakfast and lunch menu is equally serious: avocado toast at the level that justifies the concept, breakfast burritos, salads. Arrive early; the most coveted items are gone by 10am on weekends. Two locations (Jackson and Wilson); the sister restaurant Picnic serves the same quality in a take-away format.
What Stands Out
- James Beard semi-finalist (Outstanding Bakery) — the finest bakery between San Francisco and Chicago
- Kouign-amann: the most technically challenging Breton pastry, executed correctly
- Pain au chocolat with Valrhona chocolate and croissants with proper shatter-and-pull texture
- Arrive before 9am on weekends — the most coveted items are gone by 10am
- Two locations: Jackson (East Broadway) and Wilson; Picnic sister café for takeaway