Chinese Bakery Near Me in Chinatown: Phoenix Bakery's 88-Year Strawberry Cake

Phoenix Bakery has been baking in Los Angeles Chinatown since 1938, and the Chan family that founded it still runs it from a custom-built bakery at 969 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012. The doors open at 10 am every day and close at 4 pm Monday through Thursday and at 5 pm Friday through Sunday, or earlier if the cases sell out. For a chinese bakery near me search around Union Station, this is the shop that put fresh strawberries and whipped cream on LA's sponge cakes.

The bakery opened the same year New Chinatown did. Founders F.C. Chan and his wife wanted a gathering place that sold the traditional Chinese pastries and cookies their community could not find locally, and their first shop in Central Plaza led with almond cookies made from family recipes. F.C.'s brother Lun joined soon after, and the fresh strawberry whipped cream cake became part of the lineup, the cake the family calls their trademark.

By the 1970s the bakery was famous across Los Angeles as, in the family's own words, a little Chinese bakery making a not so Chinese cake. In 1977 the Chans left Central Plaza for the custom-built bakery on Broadway they still use today. Lun's son Youlen later took over production and widened the range of sweets. The mascot on the boxes, a boy called Sing Song, was drawn by the illustrator Tyrus Wong.

The family photo on the bakery's history page is captioned with the 88th anniversary in 2026, and it shows the second generation, Leland, Kelly, Dolan, Youlen and Kathy. The city recognizes Phoenix as an LA Legacy Business. CEO Kathryn Chan Ceppi, a USC graduate, spent 40 years as an occupational therapist at UCLA before one of her brothers asked her to take over, and she told the Daily Trojan in November 2025 that customers tell her every day that four generations of their family have shopped here.

The bakery sits on the Broadway strip that anchors Chinatown, steps from Central Plaza, where the business was born. The Metro A Line stops at Chinatown station near College Street and Alameda, roughly a five-minute walk west to Broadway. Union Station is one stop south on the same line, so riders arriving on the B and D subway lines or Metrolink can transfer there and ride one stop north instead of hunting for Chinatown parking.

Drivers get an easier deal than at most Chinatown bakeries. Phoenix has its own on-site parking, and metered spaces line Broadway and the side streets. The family asks one thing: do not park in the alley behind the building, as a courtesy to the neighbors. Coming soon after the 10 am opening also means first pick of the day's strawberry slices.

The cake that built the name is a light sponge layered with fresh whipped cream and sliced fresh strawberries. The bakery says crates of fresh strawberries are used every day. You do not have to buy a whole cake to taste it: individual strawberry cake slices are made daily for anyone who wants a small bite. Kitchen supervisor Youlen Chan, a Cerritos College baking-program graduate who started working here at 12, oversees the line.

Kathryn Chan Ceppi points out that strawberry cream cakes now appear in supermarket bakeries and at 99 Ranch Market, and she says they all trace back to this kitchen. Tres leches cake is one of the shop's most popular whole cakes, and banana and custard fillings are made on request or by advance order. For people managing allergies, the cakes page lists a nut-free version, plain and simple, without the almond coating.

The Chinese side of the counter is where the 1938 recipes live. The almond cookie is the original product, still sold boxed and by the piece. Sugar butterflies, the sticky, crackly fried pastries the family calls a signature, sit beside wintermelon pastries, a traditional flaky round with candied melon filling. The cases also hold whipped cream pastries, eclairs and specialty cake slices made each morning.

Walk-in customers can buy whole cakes, but only select sizes are made each day, and every sheet cake must be ordered in advance. The current cake menu runs from a 6-inch round that serves 5 to 6 people to a full sheet for 100-plus, with a quarter sheet for 20 to 30 and a 10-inch round for 18 to 20. Round, square and rectangular shapes are offered depending on the head count.

The bakery recommends ordering at least 72 hours ahead by email at phoenixbakery@gmail.com or by phone. Put a phone number in the email so the sales team can call back with questions. An order is not confirmed until it is paid in full and the team has replied, so a sent email alone does not lock in a Saturday birthday cake. Wedding cakes are handled the same way, and the family has made them for receptions at the Natural History Museum.

Mooncakes are the exception to everything above. They are made once a year with the bakery's handmade molds for the Mid-Autumn Festival, in red bean and lotus seed paste, with or without salted yolks, sold singly or in gift boxes. That festival fell in late September this year, so an October visit is the wrong time to hunt for them. Sign up for the bakery newsletter for holiday ordering news instead.

Mornings are the best window. The posted weekend closing time comes with a warning, 5 pm or until the cases sell out, and the strawberry slices are what disappears first. Skip a Monday to Thursday plan that has you arriving at 3:45 pm. With the doors closing at 4 pm, the slice trays are often thin, and you will be choosing from what is left instead of what you came for.

If the strawberry slices are gone or the line is out the door, walk south on Broadway to Queen's Bakery, a Chinatown shop known for its almond cookies and puffed rice cakes that stays open until 6:30 pm. It gives you a second Cantonese-style case without moving the car, and it is a natural pairing for anyone who wants to compare two generations of Chinatown almond cookies side by side.

Regulars come in two groups. Families buy whole cakes for kids' birthdays, quinceañeras and retirement parties, and the bakery has filled orders for the Dodgers, the Lakers and a string of Los Angeles mayors. The other group is downtown businesses ordering for office celebrations, a trade the bakery has served since the move to Broadway. Both groups know to decide at the case before reaching the counter, because the bustling staff move in a quick, practiced rhythm.

Central Plaza, the 1938 courtyard where Phoenix first opened, is a two-minute walk away. It was designed with help from Hollywood set designers, and its lanes carry names such as Gin Ling Way, Bamboo Lane and Chung King Road. Inside are a statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen erected in the 1960s by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and a 7-foot statue of Bruce Lee unveiled in 2013.

Eat your slice on the walk east to Los Angeles State Historic Park, a long open lawn between Spring Street and the A Line tracks, where there is room to sit down with a cake box on your knees. The large Chinese gateway at Broadway and Cesar Chavez Avenue, funded by the local Teochew-speaking community, marks the south end of the strip.

Phoenix Bakery, 969 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012, in Chinatown. Hours are Monday to Thursday 10 am to 4 pm and Friday to Sunday 10 am to 5 pm, or until sold out. On-site parking plus metered street parking, with no parking in the alley. Order whole and sheet cakes at least 72 hours ahead; advance orders must be paid in full before they are confirmed. Metro A Line to Chinatown station.