Manna Bakery Set to Open Thursday

Saif Manna is getting ready to open the first brick-and-mortar location of his bakery in Fishtown. / Photography by Michael Persico

Saif Manna didn’t start out as a chef or a baker. He began as a student at Temple, making cookies in his apartment for his girlfriend during the COVID lockdowns.

They were good cookies. Good enough that she asked him why he didn’t try selling them. So he did — first on campus, then at pop-ups in local cafes, then knocking out trays of baked goods and carrying them around to local farmers markets where, once word got out, he started drawing huge lines wherever he set up. People would sometimes wait hours just to get a taste of his manakeesh, chicken and sumac buns, Basque cheesecake, and perfect, chewy chocolate chip cookies. He and his team could sometimes run through 800 pastries in three hours, selling out every crumb.

For years, this was the way Manna did business: on his feet at local farmers’ markets and pop-up shops, always hustling, working first out of his apartment kitchen, then a commissary space, with a team built for speed, volume, and precision. From the start, his inspiration has been the Palestinian and Levantine flavors he grew up with, and the hospitality he learned at his family’s tables — the warmth of weekend breakfasts, pancakes and omelets made by his father, and the baking done by both his grandmothers. Every recipe is a family recipe because everything he bakes is done with the memories of those meals in mind. He started looking for a permanent location last year. In March of 2026, he signed a lease.

And now, after months of prep and build-out (some of which we detailed when he let Chloé Pantazi-Wolber tag along with him for a day back in April), Manna is debuting his first brick-and-mortar location on Thursday, July 30th, in the former Essen Bakery space in Fishtown. It will be called Manna Bakery because, if nothing else, that’s a pretty easy name to remember.

The space is centered around a large counter where Manna’s baked goods can be displayed. There’s a coffee station, pouring from Seekers Coffee, a small-batch roaster out of Princeton, and offering rose-cardamom and tahini-date lattes, Kumda Kahve (a 16th-century Ottoman method for brewing coffee on sand), and orange blossom lemonade based on a recipe from Manna’s grandmother. The vibe is cozy, earthy and welcoming, with travertine tile (a tribute to Manna’s dad, who calls it his favorite stone) and a small “souk” selling a curated selection of Levantine spices, Palestinian wares, pantry goods, and beans from Seekers. There’s even space for classes and private events should the need arise, and the ability for the space to transform from a bright and easy coffee shop and bakery in the mornings to a lively cafe in the evenings.

But the big draw here will, of course, be the pastries produced by Manna and his team of bakers. The menu will always be in flux (depending on the season, the whims of the kitchen, and what’s left by the time you show up), but the plan is to start off with a roster of everything from hummus and muhammara, Jerusalem-style bagels and herbed cheese fatayer to seasonal Basque cheesecakes, brioche maarouk buns filled with fruit jams, buns laminated with cardamom butter, rose and pistachio shortbread, honey sesame cookies and, of course, the extra brown butter chocolate chunk cookies that got him started in the first place — and were just named in our 2026 Best Of Philly list as the best cookie in the city.

Manna’s Best of Philly-winning extra brown butter chocolate chunk cookie

“My purpose in baking has always been rooted in sharing Palestinian traditions and telling our story through food,” Manna says. “Opening Manna Bakery in Fishtown is an opportunity to bring the flavors, memories, and hospitality I grew up with to a wider community. We’re excited to create a space where guests can experience Palestinian culture in a way that feels both authentic and welcoming.”

To start, they’ll be operating Thursdays through Sundays, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and there are already plans in place to expand both the menu and the hours come fall.

But for right now, I’d make plans to show up early and be prepared to wait. Because if the kinds of lines that Manna has traditionally drawn are any indication, this opening is going to be huge. And crowded, for sure.