When Asaro Bakery & Cafe took over the storied Darwin’s space at 1629 Cambridge St. in Cambridge, hopes were high: Could anything replace the beloved institution? So far, the answer seems to be yes: Newton’s Tzion and Jessics Barsheshet opened Asaro Bakery & Cafe with their kids, Timna and Jason, in June 2024.
The family came to Boston when the kids were teens after owning bakeries in Jerusalem. Now, they serve a mix of Israeli specialties with more mainstream classics. I talked to Jason about the cafe’s role as a Jewish gathering place and his favorite menu items.
I have to ask: Do you have many loyal Darwin’s customers?
It’s funny. There are people who knew it as Darwin’s, and then they moved away. They came back and were like, “What happened? Is this still Darwin’s?” But this is a great location because it’s a really diverse group of customers; young families, young adults. We have the high school in front of us and there’s a daycare just around the corner, so we get a little bit of everything. We get people native to Cambridge and young adults who move here either because they’re part of one of the educational institutions—they’re doing their master’s, their Ph.D.s or they’re professors. Obviously, we get a lot of international students from MIT, from Harvard, from Wellesley, all these colleges are in the area. It’s a little bit of everything.
Tell me what you were doing before. Have you always been in the food business, or is this a first-time venture for you? How did you break in?
We’re originally all from Jerusalem. We moved to the United States in 2008. In Israel, my parents owned a few bakeries and cafés; not all at the same time, just kind of in succession. They always loved the food industry and had their hands in a variety of food establishments. We moved to the U.S. when my sister was 12, and I was 15. We kind of did our own thing in high school. My sister studied fashion; I studied finance.
Going a bit backward, when my parents had all these restaurants growing up, my sister and I were always around it. After school, we’d hang out in the bakeries and cafés. On weekends, we’d go to work with them. That was our whole life: school, then the parents’ business. So, being around the food industry was nothing new to us. We always knew that, as an entrepreneurial family, we’d eventually open something together. And then we moved here, and they wanted to take a bit of a break from the food business. They became franchisees of an Israeli-owned jewelry business and were the Boston franchisee, a change of pace after 30 years in food.
What brought your family to Boston?
I think [my parents] liked that there’s a lot of Jewish and Israeli presence in the area. You have Newton and Brookline, and Boston in general is very Jewish-centric. And obviously, the education system was very important to them. Boston just seemed like a good fit. Plus the history; it’s quaint, not necessarily a big-time city like New York. We joke because one of the ideas before we moved was to move the whole family to Alaska. So, to this day, we joke, like, imagine if you guys decided to move to Alaska. I think Boston is a nice meeting point between Alaska and New York City.
My sister studied fashion, I studied finance and after college we moved in together and tried to pursue our careers in New York City. Then COVID happened and forced everyone back home. Nothing was happening in New York for either of us. Around the same time, that jewelry company closed down. My parents felt ready to get back into food. They missed the active lifestyle. During COVID, we started baking from home. It was the stereotypical small-bakery start: bake at home, get known, grow, outgrow the house. We saw how excited people were about my sister’s baked goods and decided to go for it. We found this location, and the rest is history.
Tell us about your menu.
We have a lot of Israeli traditional dishes—burekas, Jerusalem bagels, things we grew up with. We even did kugel at one point just to try it, and people loved it. But we’re not trying to be only an Israeli bakery. Our menu is really what our family likes to eat. We have French pastries; traditional croissants, elephant ears, basque cheesecake, chocolate ganache cake. We’re not trying to corner ourselves into anything.
For savory food, we have avocado toast, smoked salmon and two of our most popular sandwiches: the crispy schnitzel sandwich and the dry fruit chicken thigh sandwich, which is based on something my dad used to make at home. That’s our second best-selling sandwich. A lot of it is just cooking what we enjoy as a family, with interesting flavors. Being Israeli influences our food naturally. It shows up in our culinary expression.
Does Judaism influence your space at all? Is it a Jewish gathering place?
I think unintentionally, yes. All four of us are Israeli and speak fluent Hebrew. Word of mouth travels in the Israeli and Jewish community, from Brookline to Newton. We’re connected to Harvard Hillel, MIT students, researchers, faculty. But we try not to make that our sole identity. We don’t want anyone to feel excluded. We want everyone to feel welcome. That said, a lot of Israelis, whether here permanently or temporarily, find comfort here. You’ll hear a lot of Hebrew. We call my mom the mom of Cambridge. She’s very warm and welcoming. A lot of students from Israel who left their parents behind kind of see her as that mom figure.
What’s your favorite thing on the menu?
For the savory side, the dry fruit chicken thigh sandwich. I’m biased. For pastries, my sister’s almond croissant is by far the best. Handmade almond paste, no preservative flavor. It’s phenomenal. A close second is the banana bread with chocolate chips. It’s my grandmother’s recipe. It’s amazing.
Are you thinking about expanding?
We’re trying to tame this beast first. We’ve had a great reception from the community, knock on wood. We’re taking it day by day. If expansion happens, great. If we stay here and serve the local community, that’s great, too.
How do you divide roles?
My sister is the head baker. My dad runs the kitchen and operations. My mom does customer-facing work and helps in the kitchen. I handle backend and front-end—I try to be everywhere. There are no strict roles. During Hanukkah, it was all hands on deck, rolling sufganiyot at 2 a.m. We just want to serve fresh, quality food with great service. Everything else is secondary.
Follow Asaro Bakery & Cafe on Instagram @asarocafe for a peek at drool-worthy pastries and savory favorites.