Tucked between the many coffee shops and restaurants on Second Avenue, Justin’s Salt Bread is New York City’s first bakery entirely dedicated to salt bread. A small and whimsical storefront, the bakery’s entrance sports floor-to-ceiling windows scattered with cartoon drawings of the rolls and salt teaspoons. Since its opening in late December, the bakery has gained popularity among locals and on social media, as lines wind outside the door and last almost an hour.
Salt bread — known as shio pan in Japanese — was invented in the 2000s at Pain Maison, a neighborhood bakery in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture. Gaining traction across local bakeries in Seoul soon after, several South Korean bakers popularized the Japanese butter roll into croissant form — an adaptation that Justin’s Salt Bread now takes on. Often consumed as a savory snack, the treat is marked by a fluffy, airy interior that starkly contrasts its crisp crust, which features salt flakes that coat the top of each roll.
The bakery’s raised wooden platforms are meant for customers to take off their shoes and have more intimate interactions with each other on traditional Japanese tatami mats for seating. The seating arrangement, along with the coat racks scattered throughout the seating area, contributes to the bakery’s homey yet lively feel. Further into the bakery, customers are huddled around small, round tables with their friends and cranking out work on their laptops.
The bakery’s food menu consists of a single item: the Original Salt Bread, sold as a single ($4.50) or three-pack ($12). Dipping creams — chocolate ($1), sweet ($1) and Uji matcha ($1.50) — are available as add-ons. Beyond basic beverages, it also offers two specialty drinks topped with salted cold foam: the Signature Salt Coffee Latte ($6.50) and the Signature Salt Matcha Latte ($7), made with Himalayan pink salt and Uji matcha sourced from Japan’s tea center.
Choosing to focus on a few specializations — both in items and flavors — Justin’s Salt Bread offered a refreshing sense of authenticity, especially amid New York City’s jam-packed food culture, where local coffee shops and pastry stores spread themselves thin across their offerings. Not only did it relieve my decision fatigue, but it also allowed for nearly all aspects of the bakery’s setup to work in conjunction with the menu items. Moreover, the bakery put immense effort into explaining the cultural background of each dish they served, detailing on whiteboards and on their takeout bags where salt bread originated and even where some of their ingredients were sourced.
As for the shop’s namesake, the bakery perfectly captures South Korea’s rendition of salt bread: Each roll is light and airy, coated in butter to create a crisp yet oily exterior that complements the interior, with flakes of salt sprinkled on top. The bread itself is especially sticky, making each bite so chewy and substantial that it took longer to finish than I expected. Despite its light, airy texture, the bread was surprisingly filling — I felt full after just two of the three rolls. Of the three add-ons available, I enjoyed the sweet cream, which had a tartness that paired well with the salt. While every dipping cream added density to each bite, the chocolate sweet cream and Uji matcha sweet cream were too sweet for my taste.
The bakery’s effort to embody authentic cultural practices rooted in salt bread’s origins, paired with its eclectic decor, created a cozy, welcoming environment for anyone who walked in. Though wait times can be excessive, bringing along a couple of friends to share a satisfying bite and enjoy some close conversation on a tatami makes a trip to Justin’s Salt Bread worthwhile.
Contact Shreeya Goyal at [email protected].