Downtown Bakery & Creamery
Kathleen Stewart opened this on the Healdsburg plaza in 1987 with Lindsey Shere, Chez Panisse's pastry chef. The sticky bun is $4.50 and there is a line out the door at weekends.25
Why go
Stewart, Lindsey Shere and Therese Shere had worked together at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and they brought that sourcing straight into a bakery on Healdsburg Plaza.2 The Sheres left in 1997 and Stewart's children Joe Stewart and Maya Eshom ran it with her.3 She listed it for sale on 1 August 2021 at 72, with one line about it: It's someone else's turn.
2 Ross and Karna Murphy bought it, and Ross had already been baking the bread there for about a year.3 It closed for January and reopened on 1 February.3
Order this / avoid
- Order: the sticky bun, $4.50.5
- Order: the spiced donut muffin, which BiteClub described as part donut, part muffin.4
- Order: a fig bar at $3.50 or a baby fruit galette at $7.25 if you are building a picnic for the square across the street.5
- Avoid: the weekend rush if you are in a hurry. The line has run out the front door for years.2
What locals & experts say
- Sonoma Magazine's BiteClub column (December 2011):
the flaky, crispy, buns of goodness are the best in Sonoma County. If not the planet.
4 - Ross Murphy, on taking it over:
we are not taking away the Downtown Bakery we all know and love.
3
Good to know
- Everything on the menu is under $10 except large cakes and a bag of bagels. A grilled ham and cheese is $7.5
- The recipes were part of the sale, which is why the counter did not change under the new owners.1
Verdict
should-visit — The succession is as good a reason to go as the pastry. When Kathleen Stewart sold in 2022 after 35 years, the buyer was Ross Murphy, who had already been baking the bread there for a year, so the recipes went with the building and so did the man making them. Everything except a whole cake and a bag of bagels is under $10, which is the other half of the case on a plaza where nothing else is. Held below must-visit because the newest published word on the baking is from 2011 and predates the handover.