Sarah O'Brien
Little Tart Bakeshop | Atlanta
FEBRUARY 2018
Whisks and rolling pins were early companions for Sarah O’Brien. An Ohio-native, O’Brien learned to bake sticky buns and apple pies from her grandmother, and she fell in love with French pastries during a trip to Paris in her teens. After college, O’Brien earned her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop––but she yearned to return to the city where she fell for flaky croissants. She landed a teaching fellowship in Paris and convinced bakers at Au Levain du Marais to let her stage. After a year, O’Brien moved to Atlanta to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work as an international meeting coordinator, while simultaneously planning to open a bakery.
Little Tart Bakeshop began as a farmers market stall and found a permanent home in Grant Park in 2011. O’Brien’s formula of channeling local ingredients and love into every pastry gained her a loyal following and she opened a second Little Tart Bakeshop in Krog Street Market in 2014. O’Brien was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for “Outstanding Baker” 2016 and 2017. And as her business has grown, so has her impact on the community. In 2017, she organized a city-wide “cookie grab” benefitting Planned Parenthood Southeast, through which she raised over $25,000.
