Two International Bakeries You Need to Know at Worthington Farmers Market
Get to know Dua Bakery and The Little Dot Tea & Bakery, plus The Little Grand welcomed a new vendor this week.
The last time I visited the Worthington Farmers Market, which is taking place indoors through April, there were no fewer than 15 bakers present. It’s an overwhelming wealth of delicious baked goods—from breads to bagels, cookies and pastries galore. With such abundance, it can be hard to choose, so I wanted to highlight a couple of standouts worthy of your consideration.
Dua Bakery
This husband-and-wife operation recently celebrated its first anniversary. Erjon Mbrakulli was the former chef at Rodos Greek Taverna in Linworth, and his wife, Esmeralda, had started the bakery to make desserts for the restaurant. When the restaurant was destroyed in a fire in March of this year, the couple decided to put their energy into the bakery. Their goal is to offer traditional Albanian desserts and introduce dishes that are new to Columbus. You’ll typically find Erjon manning their market stall and Esmeralda is in charge in the kitchen.
Esmeralda and Erjon, who have three young children, grew up in Albania, and Esmeralda learned to bake from her grandmother. She would spend summers in her grandparents’ village, and from the age of 8 or 9 she began learning to make pastries like baklava and other traditional Albanian desserts.
The couple sell their baked goods at several farmers markets, and through the winter you can find them at the Worthington and Grandview indoor farmers markets.
While some of their cakes and pastries are traditional to both Albania and Greece, Esmeralda also enjoys experimenting with new flavors. She says trendy flavors like ube and Dubai chocolate have been popular when incorporated into her traditional cheesecake.
Both Esmeralda and Erjon say their favorite product is their Greek orange cake, which has become one of their bestselling desserts. The cake is garnished with a slice of glyko tou koutaliou, a candied orange that translates as “spoon sweet,” a beloved Greek tradition. People used to preserve fruits, nuts and flowers in a thick syrup. When guests arrived, they would be offered a spoonful of the rich sweet with a glass of water as a gesture of hospitality. You can buy jars of the candied oranges from them as well.
As with Dua Bakery’s other pastries, the oranges are slow-cooked with no artificial flavors and no shortcuts, just natural ingredients and time. Asked which pastry is the hardest to make, Esmeralda says it’s probably the baklava because she rolls all the filo pastry by hand. “When you make things with love, nothing is hard,” she says.
The Little Dot Tea & Bakery
The Little Dot Tea & Bakery is an Asian bakery established in 2021 by Heidy Chu. The Worthington Farmers Market is the only retail location for the bakery, which has developed a loyal following for its chiffon cakes, matcha buns and Hong Kong-style egg tarts.
Chu was born and raised in Hong Kong and moved to Columbus five years ago, but her family has lived in Columbus longer. She says that as a Worthington resident, the local farmers market was a natural place to launch her business. She loves the vibe and community atmosphere of the market and says that her family were regular shoppers at the market before she opened her bakery.
Chu’s baked goods are inspired by her childhood in Hong Kong and her travels in Asia. She offers baked goods from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Chu is particular about her ingredients, using Japanese cake flour for her chiffon cakes because the texture isn’t right with anything else. She also does not use any food colorings.
The Little Dot’s best-selling items are the garlic cheese bread—Chu thinks this is because it’s more familiar to people—and her seasonal chiffon cakes. Her favorite item is the green onion cookie. Chu says she is a “savory person,” and she created the cookie as a morning snack for herself. She saw cheese biscuits and scones and thought: “Why not green onion,” which is a ubiquitous ingredient in many Asian cuisine. Chu says she usually makes extra in hopes of having leftovers, but it’s making her happy that others are catching on to the savory cookie.
Typically, The Little Dot offers around 20 different products each week. Some items are always available, like the green onion cookie, egg tart and garlic cheese bread, but others come and go with the seasons or depending on what Chu feels like baking. At the moment, she’s working on a new banoffee pie with almond praline, banana confit, chocolate caramel and vanilla white chocolate cream. Keep an eye out for its debut!
Four more bakers to seek out at Worthington Farmers Market:
Angie’s Rainbow Cookies: Embodying the motto “pick one thing and do it really well,” Angie’s offers exceptional rainbow cookies year-round in a veritable rainbow of colors and themes.
Shepard Baking Co.: A favorite treat of Heidy Chu, who says her family enjoyed a chocolate cream pie from Shepard for Thanksgiving. Shepard Baking Co. offers a wide range of baked goods, including sweet treats, sandwich bread and crackers.
Sweet Ghost: A favorite treat of Esmeralda Mbrakulli’s—and ours—you’ll find Sweet Ghost’s peppermint marshmallows in Columbus Food Adventures’ Best of Columbus gift box. Although its focus is confections, Sweet Ghost also offers a small selection of brownies and shortbread cookies. You can read Erin’s interview with Gabby Corpus from Sweet Ghost here.
Tulip Cafe: We’ve written about Tulip Cafe before in Foodletter. While Tulip’s market stand doesn’t offer all of our favorite savory dishes, you’ll find the Turkish cafe’s excellent borek, simit and flatbreads. If you’re lucky, you might also score some of their grape leaves.
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News & Happenings
Around the Columbus Food & Drink Scene
Great news for smash burger fans. Clintonville-based Preston’s: A Burger Joint is now open inside The Little Grand Market (710 Grandview Xing Way, Ste. 112). It’s not the first food hall experience for Preston’s, which is known for having one of the best burgers in town. The burger shop did a two-year stint in the historic North Market before departing the market in December 2022.
After nearly 40 years in business, the hibachi-style restaurant Fujiyama Steak House of Japan (5755 Cleveland Ave.) closed on Dec. 5.
the little dot is the best!