Brecotea(ux)
Brecotea in Glen Allen serves Asian breads, desserts, and bubble tea. Read our full review of this hidden bakery gem in Central Virginia.
I studied abroad in Kansai Prefecture, Japan, in 2007. Tucked into the most unassuming corners of the Osaka train station were patisseries that, I tenderly believed, could compete with the finest in Europe. Each week, I would buy loaves of pillowy milk bread, bacon-stuffed rolls with chives, and chantilly cream–filled croissants topped with berries and dusted with powdered sugar. I gained a deep appreciation for the fine interpretations these cooks and chefs gave to French and Italian cuisine.
Similarly tucked away — this time in a shopping center in Glen Allen, Virginia — is Brecotea, a Taiwanese-style bakery. It not only offers gorgeous interpretations of the sweet and savory breads from my memories of living in Asia, but also light and airy desserts, masterful special occasion cakes, and brilliantly crafted fruit and bubble teas, all within a playful yet elegant atmosphere.
On my last visit, their potato roll was the chosen variety, and I don’t exaggerate when I say that meal was in my dreams for several nights going forward, and I immediately decided I would try my hand at a buttery roll stuffed with potato salad and salted pickles to make at home the following week. Regretfully, there isn’t any surviving evidence. (Read: “I forgot, in all my haste, to get a photo.”)
On this occasion, I threw all good sense aside and firmly decided to satiate my sweet tooth by ordering the jasmine milk tea with brown sugar boba and the Swiss Cake Roll to eat there (the vanilla one; there’s also a chocolate) and a pain au chocolat, a mango roll, and a blueberry brioche roll in a to-go box for breakfast the next day.
Sitting at the far end of the café, I was surrounded by a buzz of languages. At the table nearest mine, three friends with beautifully painted nails laughed over their coffees; a few tables away, a family chatted while their two children colored; across from me, two women with beautifully decorated headscarves shared a book and showed each other photos of loved ones on their phones.
Watching them, I imagined a story: perhaps they were friends from grade school, separated by time and distance, now reunited and living near each other again. Maybe each had a son, and they were happy knowing that someone who loved them as a girl would now love their little boy just as well.
Brecotea isn’t just a bakery; it’s a gathering place, a place where memories are made — the kind of place that reminds you food is never just about sustenance, but about connection to times, people, and places near and far.
