Find this top pastry chef’s bakes at Phoenix coffee shops, events

Have you ever wondered why people will spend their free time braving the heat and waiting in line, just for a single pastry? Kave Bakery might have your answer.

The Phoenix bakery, founded by pastry chef Antonia Kane and her husband, Bryan Ayala, is still technically a pop-up operation. It focuses on small-batch pastries, with a rotating selection that changes based on the week, demand and even the weather.

The variety is part of the fun. Because Kave operates through wholesale partnerships and pop-ups rather than a permanent storefront, there is no guarantee that the menu will look the same from one day to the next. 

Among the bakery’s standouts are the tigre and pain suisse, which Kane says are its biggest sellers. A tigre is a small French ring-shaped cake with a crisp exterior, while a pain suisse is a laminated pastry typically filled with pastry cream and chocolate. 

Kave also rotates in more familiar and unexpected flavors, including an elote danish and matcha knot. There are familiar, deeply golden croissants alongside pastries with unusual shapes, elaborate layers, generous crunchy nut toppings and fresh ingredient combinations.

The chef’s approach is less about piling on fillings and toppings and more about making something that feels distinctive while still letting the bake itself shine.

“I think one of the best parts of my pastries is that you just can’t get it anywhere else,” she says. That kind of exclusivity draws a line.

A bakery years in the making

For Kane, opening her own bakery was not a spontaneous decision; it was something she had been thinking about for years.

Kane was born and raised in Arizona, attended culinary school and moved to San Francisco, where she spent about four years building her pastry career. She eventually returned to Arizona with experience under her belt, including time at the world-famous Tartine Bakery, before taking on increasingly ambitious roles in the Valley.

Her first pastry chef position locally was at Melrose District darling Valentine, where she helped build the pastry program from the ground up.

“That was the hardest job I’ve ever had by far,” the chef says.

It was also where she learned just how much work goes into creating a complex pastry that looks simple on the surface.

One of her biggest projects was developing a croissant using Sonoran white wheat flour. Kane spent nearly a year tweaking the recipe, working through ratios and techniques to get the result she wanted. 

The experience also taught her something that would become important when she eventually opened Kave: pastry is not just one thing. Bread, morning pastries and plated desserts all require very different skills and approaches.

After Valentine, Kane and Ayala spent close to nine months traveling through Europe and South America. Upon the couple’s return, Kane joined the fine-dining tasting-menu restaurant Course in Scottsdale. There, she focused on incorporating items like eclairs and puff pastry into dessert menus and in 2025, she was recognized by the James Beard Foundation as a semifinalist for the Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker award.

Eventually, she moved to Essence Bakery, specifically wanting to deepen her knowledge of bread. That bread knowledge is something Kane hopes to bring to Kave eventually, although she says it is not practical just yet. 

As for the name, Kave? It came together organically. Kane had spent years thinking about what she wanted to call her eventual bakery, but kept coming back to the word “cave.” Since her last name is Kane, the spelling eventually became Kave. She later found symbolism around caves representing a path toward the heart of the earth, which resonated with her and the deeper, more intentional approach she wanted to take with her work.

Kave officially began testing pastries in late 2025, after Kane and Ayala established the business and spent months buying equipment, finding kitchen space and working out recipes. Their first pop-up followed in January 2026.

Today, Kave’s pastries can be found at Futuro Coffee on Roosevelt Row Monday through Friday, and at Matilda’s All Day Cafe on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Through the end of September, Kave is also supplying a limited selection of pastries for Kid Sister’s Sunday luncheonette.

The bakery also does a monthly First Saturday pop-up in front of Arcadia Meat Market from 7 a.m. to noon, giving customers a chance to actually meet Kane and shop directly from Kave.

Baking operations currently happen out of a kitchen in the Prescott Valley area, meaning Kane makes the roughly hour-and-a-half drive into Phoenix to deliver pastries each morning. It is not necessarily the most convenient setup, but for now, it works. And it is helping Kane build the Phoenix customer base she ultimately wants to serve from a permanent location.

The long-term goal is a Kave brick-and-mortar bakery in Phoenix and Kane is hopeful that could happen next year. However, she is not interested in rushing the process.

“I still love doing pop-ups and I feel like with each one we’re just getting more and more successful and it feels amazing,” she says. “But yes, a brick and mortar is the absolute goal.”

Until then, finding Kave means keeping an eye on where its pastries are popping up. And that’s a big part of what makes the bakery so fun right now. There is something satisfying about discovering a treat you have never tried before, especially when the person making it has spent years learning exactly how to make it worth seeking out.

For Kane, the response from her loyal and growing fanbase has been a welcome reminder that all those years of practicing and studying were preparing her for this moment. The result is something worth lining up for.