The South's Best Bakeries

We sent Bill Addison, Atlanta restaurant critic and former pastry chef, in search of the best cakes, cookies, breads, pastries, and pies. A whopping 80,000 calories later, here are the bakeries that sated his sweet tooth.

Best Cookies

One pleasure of adulthood is reaching into the cookie jar again and again without anyone smacking your hand. Sure, cookies are some of the easiest desserts to whip up at home, but a top-notch bakery thrills with its sheer number of choices: chunky, nutty, fudgy, spicy—and hopefully warm from the oven!

• Fluff Bake Bar; Houston, TX
• Merridee's Breadbasket; Franklin, TN
• Muddy's Bake Shop; Memphis, TN
• Sticky Fingers; Washington, D.C.
• Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop; Baltimore, MD

Find out why we are sweet on these bakeries!