Serafin Luna, 47, joins May Ng, 52, behind the counter of Savoy Bakery in New York, September 18, 2025. (Credit: Jiwon Lee)
A small line formed in front of the counter around 4:30 p.m. on a recent weekday. Customers waited for May Ng, the cafe manager, to serve them. She’s also the baker and cashier of Savoy Bakery, located on 39th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Her signature red-and-white bandanna hovered just above the showcase as she served hot coffee, passed a chicken sandwich order to the kitchen and set up a credit card payment at the same time. Three teenagers walked in, and one of them asked something about beverages. Ng switched from English to Mandarin to point behind her.
“There’s the drink menu,” she said.
Behind the black swing doors and tinny radio tunes of Eurhythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” a Latino man in a black chef’s hat paused scooping coconut paste onto stretched-out doughs, and popped a chicken patty into the fryer. Serafin Luna, the chef, brought the finished sandwich over to the counter, saving the busy manager a trip to the kitchen.
Nine years ago, when Luna first stepped inside the bakery, he didn’t realize he would find much more than good coffee. He soon became a regular coffee customer. Before quitting his job at a fancy SoHo hotel’s dining department, the Savoy owner asked him for help setting up the sandwich menus. Ng remembers the process, too, as he taught her how to use the panini machine. Luna joined the workforce full-time soon. “And then we became familiar with each other,” Ng said. “He asks me to go see a movie, and we see a movie.”
The baker and the chef married in March 2022. COVID-19 restrictions only allowed the couple and a witness to be present for the ceremony. It was not a big celebration, but Ng is content.
“As older individuals getting married, you know, to me it didn’t matter that much. As long as we’re together and healthy,” Ng said.
The cake-cutting was saved for another celebration with the owner and a co-worker at the bakery. After that, they got back to work. The store could not handle a honeymoon holiday for two out of its three workers.
The couple shares more than their no-frills professionalism: they both built their careers picking up new skills along the way, later enhancing the bakery’s ever-evolving menu together.
Ng dropped out of college to embark on a baking journey without telling her family. It was a departure from her Chinese American parents’ expectations.
“When they found out, I was in trouble,” she recalled. She had no other choice but to keep learning pastry. After her first job, she joined Savoy Bakery Inc. in 2005, which had four stores throughout Sunset Park. (The other three branches have been sold to the employees.) She took the opportunity to become a baker at Savoy, adding cookies and muffins to the Hong Kong-style menu, eventually working at almost all of their branches. She was sent to the current location in 2010, one month after its opening.
Sunset Park is a residential neighborhood with a waterfront to the west, lined with an ex-industrial port on the western side. According to a 2023 Furman Center report, 25.3% of the residents identified as Asian and 36.2% identified as Hispanic. The last remaining location of Savoy Bakery stands near the edge of Eighth Avenue, also known as Brooklyn Chinatown. The area is home to nearly 30,000 Chinese Americans, making it one of the three largest Chinese communities in the city.
The mile-long walk down Eighth Avenue is an array of Fujianese and Cantonese establishments – stalls on the street with fresh fish and Asian fruits, hand-pulled noodle shops and dumpling houses. Among them are Chinese bakeries. Except for Xin Fa Bakery, a wildly popular spot with queues to purchase their Macau-style egg tart, the bakeries are small local businesses.
Across a few blocks of overcrowded apartments is Fifth Avenue, lined with taquerias, Colombian eateries and Puerto Rican establishments. Savoy always offers something for both demographics, be it strong coffee, sweet and savory pastries and meals.
Cream roses adorn the top of raspberry and peach tres leches cakes at Savoy Bakery on Sept. 15, 2025. (Credit: Jiwon Lee)
One hit has been tres leches, with a twist. Some days, the peach-raspberry tres leches cake are replaced by strawberry ones. The cake was a recent addition and a learning experience for the Hong Kong American baker.
Two years ago, Ng noticed the cake’s popularity in the neighborhood and decided to whip up her own version.
“I never had it before, I mean. I looked it up, and I see it does require you to use three different kinds of milk, and you soak the cake.” During the interview, an elderly Latino man stopped by to order one for a 60-person birthday party.
That’s how Ng explains most attempts. Inspiration comes from her neighborhood’s preferences and the gourmet trends online. Then she envisions a new menu, looks up recipes in cookbooks and on websites, and does a taste test with her husband for final approval.
Luna is the creative mind behind the a la carte menu, bringing skills from various kitchens. The current menu includes a calamari po-boy, popcorn chicken and a hearty version of a Caesar salad. Here, the lettuce-dressing-crouton combination is a meal with the added avocado, bacon and a choice of protein.
“It’s up to you if you want to play a little bit with it as long as it’s good for the customer,” the chef said.
America Hernandez, a customer who ordered the chicken sandwich on a Thursday, confirmed that everything is good at Savoy. She often enjoys her late afternoon meal here. She is also a part of the trend here with diners: customers tend to love the fried food, even when Ng and Luna consciously keep the healthier options on the menu.
Luna has recently started learning to bake. Ng is his teacher.
“I messed up a lot of things, but she taught me how to do everything well,” he said.
When asked if he prefers cooking or baking more, he answered, “I was just focused in modern cooking, but now I can say I like both.”
He was in the midst of prepping bites for the next day.
“This one,” he said, referencing the BBQ pork pie, is “prepared for tomorrow morning, and then tomorrow morning it’s going to be baked at 300 degrees, and then [put on the] bottom rack at 175 degrees, around 25 minutes until it’s golden and crispy,” he said.
He says he can confidently handle anything related to the oven, except frosting cakes. His first attempt did not go well. But Ng asked him to learn and help her in the future.
The hope is that one day, Ng will be at the cashier as usual, Eurythmics songs on the radio, and Luna will be piping cream roses onto tres leches cakes.
About the author(s)
Jiwon Lee is an M.S. student at Columbia Journalism School covering immigration, culture, and food.