Flour & Flower — Restaurant in St. Joseph

Stopped by this St. Joseph favorite recently and realized that in all my times coming here, I still hadn't left a review.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: Flour and Flower is one of the best bakeries in Minnesota, as well as one of the state's best kept secrets.

Last time I went, I got the Peach, Plum, & Apple Turnover, which was delicious and I can't recall the last time I had plum anything! The Dark Chocolate Lavender Shortbread is to die for, as is the Salted Rosemary Shortbread. If like me you can't choose, don't and get both! Honestly, you really can't go wrong. They also have an assortment of pies (matcha tea custard, anyone?), breads, cookies, pizzas (on pizza night -- Monday from 5 to 8:30 p.m.), flowers, and super cute merchandise. If I could live there I just might.

You can find parking to the right hand side of the building or there is easy to find street parking on College Ave and W Minnesota St.

Note: This is not a sit down place and you won't find seating.

The Most Important Note: Worried about Flour & Flower selling out before you get there (it happens!)? You can preorder food for pickup on their website.

If you're in the cities, I recommend taking a little day trip up to St. Joseph, looking at all the cute shops, grabbing brunch at Krewe, some baked goods from Flour and Flower for the ride home (if you can wait!), and ending the day with a stop at, in my opinion, the best cidery in the state, Milk & Honey Ciders. Feel free to check out my...

Update: May 29 2023 FINALLY got to get their pizzas. Wild. These things are works of art. Well seasoned and crisp. Dough was fantastic (goes without saying really because of their trade) the creole pizza was salty and garlic heaven. The spring pizza was polar opposite with fresh pea shoots and the burrata lightness. Lovely black spots on the pizza, if you don't like that eat your white pizza and be boring, THIS is pizza.

Super small spot so come early to maximize choice. I picked up a lot of cookies, snacks, cookies that I'll eat later and review. Just for now had the chicken salad sandwich. Delicious needless to say. Not too thick or thin on the dressing and the chicken wasn't dry. Perfect summertime lunch. Cinnamon roll that was airy and flaky, with a touch of cardamon. Very good, reminded me of a Swedish cardamon bun, almost croissant style.

Finally getting back to this. Tried The Cookie, damn near everything in one cookie, excellent. Their gf cookie with many seeds, not bad for being gf, I think also vegan as well? Pie crust cinnamon sticks are exactly what they would sound like. Crispy and cinnamony. The shortbread chocolate lavender was the only "meh" thing. Very delicate and chocolate was on the...

I love the shortbread cookies so much!! Both varieties don’t last a day in our household.

I’ve recently been trying some of the lunch foods and had a type of grilled cheese, which was great, as was the chicken salad on croissant. side note would LOVE to see them sub chickpeas for the chicken in the salad for a vegetarian spin.

I didn’t love the white bean soup, but it wasn’t too bad (I would say it was comparable to Good Earth’s soup where they keep it light on the salt so you can season to your taste). I really like that they always have vegetarian options.

I will say, their staff is sometimes standoffish? Or I get a weird, uninviting vibe from them. That’s the main area I would say could get me from 4 to 5 stars. I was there on 3/2/25 around 2pm when I had this experience from staff where they barely acknowledged my existence and both team members were really cold to me. The other time I was in I think the owner was there and it was like night and day in the staff demeanor.

I look forward to trying their Monday pizza night at...