David Andrews is no prodigal son, but he did leave Nashville and come back a talented chef. After spending years honing his craft in New York City, Andrews returned to Tennessee’s capital and crown jewel to open D’Andrews Bakery & Café, a modern bakery with a Southern sensibility, in 2018.

Although his family owned a clothing store when he was growing up, Andrews had a different passion. He eventually left to pursue that passion in America’s culinary capital. During his time in NYC, he studied pastry arts at the Institute of Culinary Education. Following that, he worked in the pastry kitchen at Gotham Bar and Grill (now Gotham Restaurant) for three and half years, learning about flavor (specifically savory), technique and people. He eventually joined the Kimberly Hotel staff as pastry chef and rose to the position of executive chef.

After 13 years in New York, he was ready to return home to open his own business. Andrews knew exactly what he wanted to do, even going so far as to visit bakeries across America to see what worked for them.

“The ones that I saw that were the most successful, that I wanted to emulate, were the ones who had pastries, had coffee and had savory,” he says. “I spent a long time visiting bakeries. It became pretty obvious that the success of a good bakery is a savory program.”

Pastries are front-and-center at D’Andrews, but the breakfast, lunch and coffee programs make an enormous difference in the bakery’s bottom line. In fact, Andrews says that coffee makes up 20 percent of its sales.

The New York culinary scene had a big influence on his style. If you’ve seen any movie or television show (such as The Bear) depicting the kitchen of a popular restaurant, you get the sense of how intense it can be for staff. Andrews confirms that, but adds that it can be very loving, very supportive and very challenging in order to get the best out of everyone.

“They expect you to perform at a high level. It rose my game,” he says. “They never really critiqued you to cut you down, but they critiqued you to make you better and make them look better. I was very fortunate to have wonderful learning environments where I could grow and blossom.”

DAndrews_DavidAndrews.jpg“I spent a long time visiting bakeries. It became pretty obvious that the success of a good bakery is a savory program.” - David Andrews, owner, D’Andrews Bakery & Café 
Source: Daniel Meigs


The old cliché regarding New York rings true, that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. While Nashville has lofty standards, it’s a little less severe than the chaos of the Big Apple. Not only did it sharpen Andrews’ skills, but he was able to merge the style he learned there with Southern traditions.

For instance, D’Andrews makes its own pepper jelly, a Southern specialty, and utilizes it as a topping on sandwiches. Everything in the store is made in-house, aside from peanut butter, and nothing pre-made is shipped into the store. D’Andrews seasons and roasts the meats for the sandwiches, while also making the mayo, dijonnaise, the dressings for the salads, the jams for the pop tarts and macarons and the syrups for the coffee.

Using high-quality ingredients (and local whenever possible) is a point of emphasis for the bakery. That attention to detail has led D’Andrews to prominence in its relatively short history. In 2024, it was named as a James Beard Award finalist for Outstanding Bakery. While the bakery had earned plenty of acclaim locally, that nomination put it on the national map. Food tourism is a major part of any local economy, and suddenly D’Andrews was getting visitors from around the world stopping by for a breakfast sandwich, gorgeous pastry or a hot cup of coffee. The bakery has shrewdly used that distinction in its marketing, putting the semifinalist logo on everything from its website to its customer receipts.

D'Andrews has also earned a reputation for its pastries. The best seller is The D’onut, which is a brioche donut filled with a Tahitian vanilla bean pastry cream. It’s an elevated version of what Andrews grew up on in Nashville, which would sometimes be filled with raspberry jam or jelly.

Other popular products include the ham and cheese croissant, pain au chocolat and carrot cake, which is made with parsnips, golden and black raisins and mascarpone frosting. On the breakfast and lunch side, D’Andrews’ sandwiches all stand out. While visiting, your esteemed author enjoyed one of the best breakfast sandwiches of his life, the Braised Short Rib Sandwich. The sweet and savory item features braised short rib, a free-range egg, mixed greens, pickled vegetables and black pepper aioli, all on a homemade focaccia bun.