A family-owned bakery with strong local roots is now serving pastries, coffee and more in Vienna.
Shilla Bakery and Cafe opened its doors in Jades Shopping Center at 340 Maple Avenue West yesterday (Monday), taking over a space that had been vacant since Al Nakheel Lebanese Cafe & Market closed in 2022.
The bakery is currently in extreme soft-opening mode, with many items not yet available and the staff still undergoing training. However, Shilla Chief Operating Officer Michelle Yu says the business is already getting plenty of attention from Vienna residents.
“We had a good amount of people come in today that I didn’t expect, so I’m feeling really good about it,” Yu told FFXnow. “I feel like this area’s just so welcoming and warm that I feel very confident.”
She hopes the bakery will be ready for a more official soft opening later this week, with a grand opening likely coming next week or in early July.
For Yu, Shilla’s launch in Vienna represents a milestone, as she learns to oversee and, perhaps, someday take over the business that her parents, Song and Ji Yu, originally launched in Annandale in 1999 — the same year she was born.
Still located at 7039 Little River Turnpike, Shilla Bakery got its start when Annandale was just emerging as Northern Virginia’s central hub for Korean cuisine and culture, Michelle Yu’s brother, Richard Yu, told Thrillist in 2021.
Like the community around it, Shilla has since taken off, adding a shop at Tysons Corner Center in 2016 and franchises in Chantilly, Centreville and Maryland’s Ellicott City.
When considering their first non-franchise expansion in nearly a decade, Yu says her family was drawn to Vienna by the town’s “cozy” atmosphere and robust foot traffic, as evidenced by the number of people who dropped by during construction to see when the new bakery would open.
“There’s a lot of cafes and a lot of dessert places around, but we thought we’re unique in the sense that … we’re a bakery, but we also serve food, breakfast, and all of that,” she said. “We like to say our concept is a ‘total bakery,’ so we have everything you can imagine basically, and we thought it would just fit really well in the area.”
The Vienna shop carries many of the same cakes, breads and pastries found at Shilla’s other locations, but at approximately 2,845 square feet, the larger space enabled Yu to expand the food and drink menu with sandwiches, salads, wraps and other grab-and-go items.
Yu says she’s excited to carry on the legacy established by her parents, who brought many of the bakery’s initial recipes to the U.S. from Korea. However, as a pastry chef who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in France, she also plans to put her own stamp on the family business, describing the Vienna location as the start of a “new era” for Shilla.
“I want to be a place where people can come and be like, ‘There’s something I can always try, there’s always something new, there’s always something fun,'” she said. “That’s kind of the vision I want to build.”
Shilla Bakery in Vienna is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., though Yu says the hours could be adjusted, depending on when the surrounding neighborhood is most active.
At the moment, there are no plans for any major giveaways or promotions in conjunction with the future grand opening, but customers who follow Shilla’s Instagram account can snag a free tote bag and coffee cookie when they check out.
With the Vienna shop serving as a “blueprint,” Yu says Shilla is always looking to reach more people, whether that’s through family-run stores or franchises. For now, the team remains focused on Virginia and Maryland, but an eventual expansion to more states “would be amazing.”
“It feels like we’re giving a part of our family to everyone who comes in. It’s really nice,” Yu said.
