20-05-2025
Brooklyn Heights Is the New Home of NYC's Next Cult Bakery Obsession
Brooklyn Heights is having a bakery moment with Ferrane (57 Clark Street, at Henry Street) opening Wednesday, May 21, a Swedish bakery from one of the folks behind cult-favorite Lower East Side candy store BonBon. It follows croissant-cereal destination L'Appartment 4F that's been drawing lines to the neighborhood since 2022.
The bakery comes from Selim Adira, of BonBon, and Emon Maasho, former president of the fine glass companies Orrefors & Kosta Boda, who were born in Sweden — Adira to Moroccan parents and Maasho to Eritrean parents. Ferrane reflects their heritage, named after the Moroccan word for 'community oven.'
The two became friends through a Swedish expat group that Maasho started, bonding over their shared love of Swedish candies, breads, and pastries. An annual tradition was born where Maasho would procure semla, the traditional Swedish treat eaten on Fat Tuesday, for Adira and other expat friends. But in March 2024, the line at the only Swedish bakery in the city was particularly long.
'I stood for over 40 minutes waiting for semla and they were sold out by the time I reached the counter,' he recalls. 'I got a parking ticket too!'
When he told Adira about the troublesome semla shortage, Maasho joked that the two should open a bakery of their own. 'He said 'let's do it,'' Maasho says. 'I told him I wasn't being serious; I was just talking. But he was all in. That weekend we created the concept for Ferrane.'
Just over a year later, Ferrane opens in a landmarked building on Clark Street that most recently housed a pet food store. Dark Swedish rye breads are stocked on custom white oak shelving; a curved 'croissant sofa' made by Danish design house Gubi makes it a fine setting for gathering and eating princess cake.
But there's so much more to Ferrane than pretty cake for your fika. They're baking a vast menu of Swedish breads, all from Brooklyn Granary & Mil flour. Expect traditional sourdough baguettes, focaccia, and brioche alongside kavring — the dark, dense Swedish rye bread, plus several varieties of airy crispbreads, as well as sirapslimpa, a rich loaf made with molasses, and formfranska, a sliced sandwich loaf perfect for making lunch.
A savory sandwich menu starts in the morning with combinations like egg and caviar — hard-boiled egg garnished with lightly smoked fish roe, on buttered rye, finished with chives. It moves on to open-faced beauties at lunch like shrimp with hard-boiled egg, dill mayonnaise, and butter lettuce.
The pastry case is also full of Swedish delights. Mathilda Jacob, Ferrane's lead baker (she is the current Young World Champion in baking) has created a line of magnificently swirled buns in both cardamom and cinnamon, and a line of vegan vanilla and chocolate ones you'd never guess were made without butter.
To give your croissant fix a new fave, Ferrane is laminating their own butter-heavy croissants, along with pain au chocolat stuffed with chocolate ganache after baking for a gooey warm center. There are also Swedish desserts like that princess cake served in a silver coupe, like a sundae and something called dammsugare, which translates to 'vacuum cleaner.' 'It's a fantastic way to minimize food waste and the vacuum name is because it 'vacuums' up all the leftover cake,' Maasha explains. For theirs, cake crumbs are mixed with butter, cocoa, sugar, and spiced punsch (a liqueur) into a dough-like consistency, then shaped into logs, wrapped in marzipan, and dipped in chocolate.
At Ferrane, the founders want to do more than serve great cardamom buns — though they're particularly decadent: butter and glossy, fashioned into serpentine ribbons that resemble a vintage brooch. They are particularly interested in the 'community' part of the bakery's title. Ferrane partners with One Love Community Fridge, bringing pastries and bread to fill the fridge on nearby Henry Street.
The founders also plan on holding after-school baking classes for tweens and teens. 'We want to help younger people to learn to cook and to learn about the importance of good ingredients that are missing from the education system here,' Massho says. They also hope to engage senior citizens at the nearby assisted living residence, the Watermark, to work with the young people and share recipes. 'Older people have so much knowledge, and we want to see if we can share that generational knowledge. That would be a dream scenario,' he says.
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