An Instagram reel from LeVant Dessert’s Sunnyvale location pans across a buzzing Eid celebration: tables packed with customers, plates of various sweets, and live musicians filling the room with Arabic melodies as guests clap and sing along. The scene feels more like a festive community gathering than a storefront bakery: a place where food, music and culture intertwine.
As LeVant Dessert cements its role as a hub for Bay Area Arab diaspora in the South Bay, another beloved institution called Reem’s is preparing for a return to Oakland, hinting at a wider regional resurgence of Arab-owned food spaces.
Arab bakeries are emerging as cultural touchstones across the Bay Area, serving not just desserts but a sense of belonging. LeVant Dessert—with Oasis Baklava in Sunnyvale and LeVant Dessert in Menlo Park—reflects this shift through its blend of hospitality, heritage and community-building. Its growing presence in the South Bay comes amid the highly anticipated return of Reem’s in Oakland, suggesting a broader revival of Arab-owned food spaces and their role in shaping the region’s culinary and social landscape.
Arab and Middle Eastern North African (MENA) communities have long been part of Northern California’s diverse fabric, with waves of immigration dating back decades. Recently, there’s been a notable surge in popularity of Arab culinary ventures across the Bay Area, fueled by a growing second-generation population eager to reconnect with their heritage and by wider local interest in authentic, regional flavors. This has led to increased demand for traditional Arab desserts and breads, from flaky baklava to za’atar-spiced flatbreads.
Founded in 2017 by Maya Fezzani, who is half Lebanese and half Syrian, LeVant Dessert began spontaneously. Friends praised her traditional family-style sweets, but she assumed Bay Area Arabs already had access to such recipes in their own kitchens. It wasn’t until she started making smaller, café-friendly portions for catering events that she realized the wider market potential.
Demand “took off very quickly,” she recalls, prompting her move from a home operation to a storefront. Today, most of LeVant Dessert’s customers are non-Arabs drawn to the unfamiliar flavor profiles—orange blossom, rose water, salep—and modern presentation of classic treats. Bite-size knafeh became an early bestseller, while items like pistachio-rose cake and “booza” Middle Eastern ice cream now routinely sell out.
Fezzani says she never set out to serve only her own community.
“Back home, everyone makes these desserts—I wanted to introduce them to people who don’t,” Fezzani says.
Beyond its sweets, LeVant Dessert has evolved into a cultural gathering point in the South Bay. Fezzani sees the café as a space for celebration and connection—from Eid catering orders to afternoon meet-ups over coffee and baklava. She emphasizes that Levantine pastries are rooted in ingredients rarely used in Western baking, like shredded phyllo for knafeh, orange blossom syrup, and mastic, which gives the desserts a distinct identity while also sparking curiosity among new diners. Balancing tradition with innovation has helped the shop thrive: recipes are inherited from grandmothers, but presentation and size are adapted for American café culture. Fezzani says the most rewarding part of the business is watching people gather around her desserts.
“I get to see people loving what I grew up with,” she says.
When Reem’s first opened its Arab street bakery in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood in 2017, it quickly became both a culinary destination and a symbol, celebrated for its mana’eesh flatbreads, political murals and community-focused mission. The pandemic forced the beloved space to close, leaving a void for loyal East Bay regulars who saw the bakery as more than a place to eat.
Now, after several years away, local news outlets report Reem’s is preparing a long-awaited return to Oakland. For many longtime customers, its comeback represents more than nostalgia; it signals a re-investment in Arab visibility and hospitality in the Bay Area, and underscores how much the region’s food landscape has changed during its absence.
In a post-9/11, post-Trump America, and against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Arab-owned bakeries have taken on an outsized symbolic power. These spaces offer not just knafeh and baklava, but pride, cultural safety and public presence. At LeVant Dessert, owner Maya Fezzani says customers are often curious first—then delighted—by ingredients they’ve never tasted before.
“People enjoy discovering something different,” she notes, adding that introducing new flavors is part of her mission. Reem’s, meanwhile, has long embraced a politicized identity, fusing Palestinian food with calls for liberation and justice. Together, the two represent a quiet yet powerful form of resistance: insisting that Arab culture belongs boldly on Bay Area streets.
Running an Arab bakery in the Bay Area comes with unique pressures: commercial rents are sky-high, ingredients such as pistachios, salep and orange blossom water are expensive to import, and many customers still need to be educated about what, exactly, they’re eating. Staffing, especially with people familiar with the nuances of Middle Eastern desserts, has been another hurdle. Yet Fezzani remains ambitious.
“We’re still young, but growing,” she says, adding that expansion could someday include locations in the East Bay, San Francisco or Los Gatos. For now, she’s focused on extending her menu, reaching new audiences and making LeVant Dessert a staple in an increasingly globalized local food scene.
LeVant Dessert can be found at 842 Santa Cruz Ave, Menlo Park. Sister restaurant Oasis Baklava is at 907 E Duane Ave., Sunnyvale. For more information, call ; 650.402.2525 or visit levantdessert.com.
