Our Story

Rosie Nguyen- Founder, Head Chef, Co-Owner

Rosie was a pediatric nurse for 10 years at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. During that time, she self taught herself how to cook and bake and envisioned a dream of becoming a respected chef in the near future. From starting a dessert catering gig from her tiny apartment, to transitioning to prep cook and baking positions at Toki Underground, Maketto, Ice Cream Jubilee, Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, Rosie learned on the job and soaked up as much knowledge and skills, all while keeping her day job as a nurse. From there, she started Rose Ave Bakery as a concept, pop up, to now, a real bakery. 

Rose Ave Bakery opened its doors to downtown DC in a food hall on Wednesday, March 11th, 2020. On that same day, the World Health Organization declared an international emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic. The city went into lockdown and quarantine. As countless food businesses were forced to shut down and make difficult decisions, Rosie made the choice to open back up, 2 months into quarantine, as an online preorder operation on her own and to slowly bring back the team, one by one. The team remained small and the community’s demand and interest for the pastries grew tremendously.

Paula Wang- Co-Owner, CFO, Director of Operations

Paula was one of the first bakers and employees to be hired during the start up/pop up days. 

In 2017, she officially quit her desk job to attend L’Academie de Cuisine only to find out that the school would be closing two weeks before the start of her program. Without the technical background that she hoped to receive from attending pastry school, she took matters into her own hands: bought herself cookbooks, started baking every day she could, and reached out to bakeries.

In 2018, she came to work at Rose Ave as one of two bakers to help Rosie launch Rose Ave. Paula has grown in many ways in her journey and has helped the company grow and build the foundation it needed. She is the rock of Rose Ave and is always cool, calm, organized and empathetic to the team and their needs. Paula saw the potential of Rose Ave and has become co-owner and partner and director of operations (and everything in between). 

Our Mission

Rose Ave Bakery is DC’s first modern Asian American bakery. It was created to reflect the palate of Asian Americans and to share knowledge, culture and asian flavors to all. What started as a way for Rosie to express her creativity has become a place for others to collaborate and push the limits for Asian pastries to be fun, delicious and fresh; all while supporting and uplifting each other and the community.

Woodley Park Location

In March 2023, we opened our brick-and-mortar location at 2633 Connecticut Ave in the Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington DC. It is accessible via metro - Woodley Park/Zoo stop off the Redline.