Pastry Evangelist

A RISING BAKER BRINGS COMMUNITY AND FLAWLESS CROISSANTS TO A FUNKY BIRMINGHAM STRIP

BY JOHN T. EDGE

The noisy crowd on the Birmingham sidewalk turns reverent as they pass through Last Call Baking Company’s dusty-pink door, bound for a case stacked with croissants baked until they turn a deep shade of mahogany. Carrying a cup of coffee from up the street, I follow. As the morning line shrinks and the stock of pastries does, too, we ask one another, Are they out of coffee scrolls? How many cheese biscuits are left? Ralph Wooten and his wife are on their way to his chemotherapy appointment at nearby UAB Medical Center. “I wanted to start my day with a treat,” he tells me, gesturing to a brown paper bag stamped with Last Call’s neo-Gothic logo and stuffed with a caramel-domed and sea salt–sprinkled kouign-amann, a pastry of traditional French…

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Garden & Gun (Digital) - 1 Issue, April/May 2025

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