Best Breakfast Sandwich

Sparrow is a longtime favorite for Best Bakery in Central Oregon, winning the category every time since 2013. It won that title this year, too, but it’s also taking home new bragging rights in a new category — Best Breakfast Sandwich in Central Oregon.

Sparrow opened its original location on Scott Street in 2006 with a mission of creating high-quality baked goods at prices people can afford. The humble bakery’s popularity skyrocketed over the years, and it now has a location in Northwest Crossing and in the St. Johns neighborhood in Portland—but closed its original space this year.

“It’s very humbling that we have so many people enjoying our product that are here in Bend and outside of Bend. We went from having a staff of, like, four to over 100,” said Jessica Keating, co-owner of The Sparrow Bakery.

Popular menu items like the Ocean Roll, almond croissant sandwich and croque monsieur are all to die for, but for a morning meal that gets your day started right you can’t go wrong with the Bacon-Breakfast sandwich.

“For us we feel like the base of the sandwich is really important. And so, we do it on a croissant and then we poach an egg, we use real avocado, we make arugula aioli for the sauce, and then the bacon… we cure and then we add a little bit of sweet and savory to it,” Keating said. “I think that each item is really good on its own but then when you put it together it eats really well.”

Vegetarians don’t have to miss out either; the non-bacon breakfast uses havarti cheese instead of bacon. “A lot of people like that even if they also like bacon, the melted cheese with the egg is really nice,” Keating said.