KC welcomed Baba’s Pantry with open arms; now a family bakery shows off Palestinian treats

Editor’s note: The following story was published by KCUR, Kansas City’s NPR member station, and a fellow member of the KC Media Collective. Click here to read the original story or here to sign up for KCUR’s email newsletter.

After their cafe was named one of 2022’s best new restaurants by Bon Appetit magazine, the Kamal family is expanding its dessert and pastry offerings next door, at Baba’s Bakery; it’s now open on Saturdays, and there are plans to expand hours by March

Omar Kamal calls the process of making baklava a labor of love.

First, he brushes melted ghee on the bottom of a sheet tray. Omar then places a few layers of thin and delicate phyllo dough on top. Next comes the filling — a blended, crunchy mixture of walnuts, pistachios, cinnamon and sugar — spread in an even layer on top of the phyllo.

This batch of baklava also gets a sweet-tooth, nontraditional twist.

“Once it’s towards the end of its cook, that’s when we’ll add the cocoa powder, the cocoa shavings and stuff,” he says, working diligently in the small kitchen next to his family’s cafe, Baba’s Pantry, on East 63rd Street in Kansas City, Missouri. “Let it infuse, melt together, and then we’ll make a simple syrup with condensed milk, put it on top with pistachios.”

Baklava has been made daily at Baba’s Pantry since 2021, when the Palestinian American deli and eatery opened, and Omar says they often sell out. Soon, the dessert-making will officially move next door, to Baba’s Bakery.

“With the success of the pantry,” says head baker of the family Yasmine Kamal, Omar’s sister, “a new baby was born.”

The bakery is currently in a soft-opening phase, serving pastries on Saturdays only, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Kamals plan to fully open with expanded hours by March.

“The opportunity for Baba’s Bakery came, and we couldn’t be more happy and excited to showcase what that new baby’s going to look like,” Yasmine says.

From the pantry to the bakery

When Baba’s Pantry opened, Yasmine, whose nickname is Juju, would bake trays of what came to be called “Juju’s Baklava.” The dessert quickly grew popular among customers.

Yasmine and her father, Yahia Kamal, then began “Knafeh Fridays” to expand the pantry’s confectionery offerings. Knafeh, made with shredded wheat dough and melty cheese mixed with pistachios, then soaked in simple syrup, traces back to the West Bank city of Nablus. It’s a popular dessert at celebrations and weddings.

“Knafeh is the most famous dessert in the Middle East,” says Yahia, also known as Baba, the patriarch of the family. “It’s sweet, but it makes you happy, satisfied.”

Varieties of warbat, a pastry in which phyllo dough soaked in syrup is filled with cream, are a hit at the bakery. Omar says their warbats are their spin on the American cream-filled donut; photo by Carlos Moreno/KCUR

When the pantry first opened, the space next door was in poor shape, but, as the cafe and its desserts grew more popular, the family cleaned up the empty space.

“It was something really exciting when we would sell out, so we’d be like, ‘Oh goodness!’” Yasmine remembers thinking. “Seems like we need more space to have more fun.”

After about a year and a half of cleaning up the bakery space, seeing the pantry’s success, and getting positive feedback on her and Omar’s desserts, the family was very motivated to pursue Baba’s Bakery.

Fan favorites like baklava, warbat, and “Baba-nolis” — phyllo dough filled with cream in the shape of Italian cannolis — will be staples at Baba’s Bakery. Customers can also expect a rotating menu of pastries that reflect Omar and Yasmine’s upbringings.

“We wouldn’t say we’re a traditional bakery,” Omar says. “We’re American Palestinians. There’s a lot of things we like from here that we like to play with, or (we) bring it back to Palestine, in a sense.”

The bakery’s soft-opening gives the siblings a new opportunity to experiment.

Omar Kamal works early one Saturday in January to set up the day’s offerings inside Baba’s Bakery. “We wouldn’t say we’re a traditional bakery,” he says; photo by Carlos Moreno/KCUR

On one Saturday in early January, eager customers chose from a bevy of desserts that included black sesame and turmeric cookies piled high on a platter, fluffy pieces of coffee cake, pistachio cinnamon rolls (a fusion of a classic American confection with Palestinian flavors), and a Palestinian dessert called warbat, in which thin layers of phyllo dough are filled with cream. After baking, the dough gets brushed with a simple syrup, similar to baklava.

Like many of Omar’s desserts, this offering of warbat comes with a twist. The cream is infused with cherries, and the pastry is dipped in a mixture of crushed pistachios and chocolate — like if baklava and cannoli had a baby.

“We had an idea that’s like, let’s have our own version of a donut,” he says. “When we came up with it, it was sort of our own answer to a (cream) filled donut.”

‘A really welcoming space’

As Yasmine and Omar stay busy between the kitchen and the bakery counter, eager customers sit around magenta pink tables that match the walls and tilework, and compliment the turquoise ceiling. In the middle of the room, olive branches are painted on ceiling arches.

The bakery’s interior was the brainchild of their brother Kamal Kamal, who also curated the pantry dining area.

Liz Harris and Miranda Pratt sit at a table, enjoying a pistachio and chocolate warbat, pistachio cinnamon roll and a toasted sesame turmeric cookie.

“I think one of my favorite things about it is that it’s not all just sweet, like with the toasted sesame and turmeric cookie,” Harris says. “It’s a little bit savory and salty and sweet.”

Kamal Kamal, one of Baba’s sons, helped design the interior of Baba’s Bakery. The space, which is connected to Baba’s Pantry, is only open on Saturdays; photo by Carlos Moreno/KCUR

The friends and former coworkers started regular lunch dates at the pantry about a year ago. Now, they’re excited to enjoy Baba’s Bakery.

“I love Arab or Mediterranean bakeries and the specific Palestinian flavors are really delicious,” Harris says. “I think it’s unique. Baba’s whole family is here working together, and it just feels like a really welcoming space.”

Pratt visits other bakeries in Kansas City, too, but likes that customers won’t find the traditional croissant at Baba’s Bakery.

“It’s always croissants — and this is not croissants,” she says. “This is baklava and it’s pistachio and everything. I feel like both the Palestinian flavors, and also the lack of croissants, have brought me here.”

A background in baking

Yasmine took up baking at a young age from her father, who sent his kids to school with homemade cakes and desserts.

Soon, she began making cakes for celebrations, including her birthday and graduation — she says it’s tradition in Palestinian culture for the celebrant to provide desserts.

“Which I think is a beautiful thing about the Palestinian culture, in that way, that it’s mostly around food and treats and celebration,” she says. “There’s always a reason to be like, ‘Oh, come over. We have cake, we have tea, we have cookies, we have all the things.’”

One of Yasmine’s favorite cakes, which she hopes to offer at the bakery, is citrus cake with olive oil. She says it reminds her of her family and Palestine.

“It reminds me of my grandmother, my aunt, my great aunt, my dad,” she says. “We had mini citrus groves, even in our backyard, and we would go to my aunt and uncle’s olive grove and harvest olives.”

Omar’s affinity for baking came later, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He hosted movie nights, barbecues and hangouts in his backyard to get friends together. He also baked desserts for donation drives supporting Black Lives Matter and Palestine.

Omar Kamal sets up pastries at Baba’s Bakery on a Saturday morning in January. His affinity for baking blossomed during the pandemic, he says; photo by Carlos Moreno/KCUR

“I had a lot of time to actually hone in on my dessert talents, because I figured that at one point I thought I was more into savory stuff,” he says. “But it turned out I’m actually more proficient in baking.”

2022 was a breakout year for Baba’s Pantry. National food magazine Bon Appetit named Baba’s Pantry one of the best new restaurants in the country.

“There was that validation of, ‘Oh my god, it is good,’” Yasmine says. “‘People do love what you’re doing.’”

The newfound attention, fueled in large part by word of mouth and social media, led more people to discover the pantry.

“Without the support of our community and family, I don’t know that this would have been even a consideration,” Yasmine says of the bakery. “They definitely encouraged us, and they show up time and time again. So we want to show up for our community and our people.”

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