Best Taste of a European Bakery: Morning Star Bakery & Cafe

From the line at the bustling Morning Star Bakery & Cafe, you can see pastry chefs prepping rolls and cube croissants in its open pastry kitchen, surrounded by seats on two sides and a bakery case on another.

“As they deserve, they’re out in the open. They get to talk to people. They get to — probably for the first time in their careers — look in people’s eyes as they order something they created and enjoy something they created,” says co-owner Eric Bosshard. “They are truly artists.”

In July, the constantly rotating bakery case featured lemon poppyseed rolls topped with dried flowers, yuzu lemongrass macarons and artful peach sweet corn spandauers with peach jam, honey whipped mascarpone and a peach on top. Items like chocolate croissants sell out fast, and sometimes the line stretches out of the door.

But Morning Star almost didn’t materialize. In July 2024, Bosshard was riding his bike when he went into cardiac arrest, and a bystander nurse gave him CPR. He was in a coma for four days in the hospital. When he awoke, he had an epiphany.

“I looked back on my life, and I looked forward. We had always dreamed of doing this,” he says. “I realized that my days were numbered.”

Bosshard and his wife, Darcie, spent over 18 months planning Morning Star — even traveling to Copenhagen to visit 31 bakeries for research and taking a baking class. While places around the world inspire myriad elements, Morning Star is chiefly modeled after intimate European cafes with spaces that invite connection, from its pastry counter seating to alcoves with cushioned chairs and a coffee table.

“The whole place having energy, having activity, facilitates conversation,” Bosshard says.

Since opening in April 2026, it’s scaled up from 10 to 40 staffers, doubled its kitchen space and now serves around 700 pastries daily on weekends. The queen of the pastry case is the French canele ($5). Three days ahead, bakers craft a batter of milk, cream, vanilla bean and rum. They coat copper molds from Bordeaux with beeswax and butter and freeze them — then fill them with batter and bake them.

“There’s a nice crunchy shell of beeswax and butter and then the inside, it’s like a very gooey, crepe-like consistency,” says pastry chef Lauren Hlad.

For Danish cardamom knots ($7), chefs laminate dough with a cardamom filling, which is cinnamon, sugar and butter, and top it with cardamom syrup for a glassy appearance and a complex taste. There are several Japanese influences at Morning Star, including the stunning purple ube cinnamon rolls ($9) filled with cinnamon and sugar and topped with cream cheese and dried flowers.

“The people that work here really have a true impact in what they make and in creating beautiful things,” Hlad says. “It’s always like, Oh wow! There’s nothing like this around here.”

For a meal, order the dynamic Claudia ($12) — an over-easy local egg, house-made salsa verde, house-made strawberry jam and bacon on a sourdough English muffin, made at 4 a.m. daily. Pair it with a cardamom latte, served with a signature butter cookie, or stay awhile and get a Japanese tea service.

To fit the demand, the cafe is now open Tuesdays, extending its hours to six days a week. Look out for new catering offerings and events like baking classes. Bosshard enjoys seeing regulars like one man, who brought someone new.

“He’s pointing around and explaining — that warms my heart,” Bosshard says. “That’s the whole goal: That people love the place and want to bring other people.”

1070 Ghent Road, Akron, 330-666-0660, morningstarbakerycafe.com