Baltimore's Café Dear Leon Ranks No. 2 Bakery in the World on Beli List

Beli ranked Café Dear Leon the No. 2 bakery in the world, putting a 2020-founded shop in Baltimore's Canton neighborhood ahead of nearly every famous bakery on the planet. Only JUNO, a bakery in Copenhagen, Denmark, placed higher on Beli's list of the Top 12 Bakeries in the World.

For a business five years old, the placement is the strongest signal yet that its growth model works: one viral product, disciplined French technique, and a loyal local queue. The ranking also lands the bakery in rare company.

The rest of Beli's top five:

• Arsicault Bakery — San Francisco
• Lillebrors bageri — Stockholm
• Radio Bakery — Brooklyn, New York

Who runs Café Dear Leon?

Three founders own the bakery: Cheolsoo Lee, Sungae Lee, and Min Kim. The same trio operates a second location, La Maison by Cafe Dear Leon, in Baltimore's Remington neighborhood. Café Dear Leon opened in 2020, one of the hardest years in modern memory to launch a food business.

The company frames the shop as more than a retail counter. On its own account, the bakery is an "endearing message" of love to its guests. Its stated mission "is to create a unique and intimate place for the Canton community" and to serve delicious offerings.

The founders describe a deliberate product philosophy that pairs French tradition with their own heritage.

"We celebrate the artisanal and romantic essence of French boulangerie using classical techniques and seasonal ingredients, but also innovate and reinvent with the inspiration from our own roots," the company says.

That formula — classical technique, seasonal inputs, reinvention from the founders' roots — explains how a small Baltimore shop landed beside Copenhagen and Stockholm institutions on a global list.

What drives the queue?

Customers line up for layered pastries and artisanal coffee. But one savory item drives the fame: the crab dip bagel. Hundreds of social media videos have documented the item, showing a bagel smothered in crab dip.

The scarcity is real. In a 2025 video, the Baltimore food influencer known as BmoreFood described waiting in a lengthy line at the bakery, only to be told the crab dip bagel had sold out. A few days later, his boss happened to pass the bakery on a weekday when no line had formed — a rare occurrence at Café Dear Leon — and bought the bagel for him.

"I can confirm that it is absolutely worth the hype!" the influencer shared. "The bagel is nice and hard on the outside and has a soft and pillowy center packed with cheesy crab dip goodnes."

Sold-out weekends and weekday-only quiet spells give the bakery a classic scarcity economics problem: demand that exceeds a perishable, labor-intensive product. That constraint, so far, feeds the brand rather than hurting it.

What recognition comes next?

The Beli ranking is not the only honor in play. Café Dear Leon was also named a semifinalist for the 2026 James Beard Awards, one of the most closely watched distinctions in American food service.

A No. 2 global ranking plus a James Beard semifinalist slot puts the bakery in position for a breakout 2026 — the question for its three founders is whether they scale production or keep the line, and the buzz, exactly where it is.

By Daniel Okafor