Sofra Bakery & Café

Cambridge’s Sofra Bakery & Café feeds sheltering crowds.

Fresh-baked jam turnovers at Sofra

Sofra's fresh-baked raspberry-rose jam turnovers | Photograph courtesy of Sofra

Delectable side dishes and salads at Sofra

Side dishes include: cucumber and dill salad; baked gigante beans; zucchini pancakes; and lamb chunks with spiced hummus and falafel

Photograph courtesy of Sofra

At Sofra Bakery & Café in Cambridge, the phone starts ringing for take-out orders at 2 p.m. By 2:45, when we’re contemplating dinner and craving the rye-flour galette with a mélange of zucchini, goat cheese, and black garlic ($14)—it’s already sold out. The dark-toffee flavor of that aged garlic (common in Asian cuisines) is irresistible. We take one of the last sausage pitas ($11) instead. Back home, eating on the patio, that spicy ground pork—mixed with pickled peppers, feta cheese, and a hint of orange flavor in a crunchy pastry wrap—becomes a new favorite. Other must-haves: the meze platter ($12): dollops of creamy beet tzatziki, hummus, whipped feta dip, and a romanesco salad; and the cauliflower fatteh ($14), a slow-cooked dish with caramelized onions, pine nuts, and yogurt, sprinkled with sumac. The corner café’s been feeding sheltering crowds via brown-bagged goodies handed across a plexiglass-protected doorway, and this summer could resume limited service at its outdoor tables. Wherever you enjoy this nuanced, Turkish cuisine-inspired fare, don’t forget dessert ($4-$8): soft, double-chocolate “Earthquakes,” oatmeal cream pies, and sesame-caramel cashew bites. And on weekends definitely call way ahead for the hot and tender raspberry-rose-flavored turnovers and tahini-tinged, brown-butter donuts.

Read more articles by Nell Porter-Brown
Related topics

You might also like

How to Cook with Wild Plants

From wild greens spanakopita to rose petal panna cotta, forager and chef Ellen Zachos makes one-of-a-kind meals.

Eating for the Holidays, the Planet, and Your Heart

“Sustainable eating,” and healthy recipes you can prepare for the holidays.

Best Bars for Seasonal Drinks and Snacks in Greater Boston

Gathering spots that warm and delight us  

Most popular

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.

Explore More From Current Issue

A football player in a white jersey evades a defender in a green uniform on the field.

Despite personnel losses, Crimson captain Xaviah Bascon is upbeat about the 2026 season.

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

Colorful word cloud with various emotions and ideas related to learning and reflection.

But it can’t replace human connection.