Business Highlight of the Week: Bear Moon Bakery Cafe

A note on sourcing: every fact in this feature, including the address, the phone number, the owners' names, the founding date, the hours, and the bakery's history, was verified this week against the bakery's official website, the City of Boerne community page, KENS5's Neighborhood Eats feature, and the San Antonio Express-News (mySA) feature on the bakery. Hours and the daily menu can change, so call ahead before you plan your visit.

This week's Business Highlight of the Week is Bear Moon Bakery Cafe, the scratch-bakery at 401 S Main St in downtown Boerne. Since 1995, Paula Hayward and Jack Cushman have been baking from the 1912 Joe Vogt Building, a Main Street landmark that has housed a bakery since the 1950s. The case is full of pastries made that morning, the bread is baked in house, and the pigs-in-a-blanket, known to a generation of regulars simply as "piggies," have a following that reaches well beyond Kendall County.

A Main Street building with a baking tradition

The story starts with the building. The Joe Vogt Building went up in 1912 as a grocery and dry goods store on what is now Boerne's Hill Country Mile, and it has been part of the town's history ever since, including a connection to the former Diamond Hospital next door. Bakeries have operated in this spot since the 1950s, and Bear Moon is the third of them. When Paula Hayward took over the shop in 1995 from Patrick Heath, who was then the mayor of Boerne, she joined that line of bakers. In her own words to KENS5, "I took over this facility and then later purchased it starting in 1995. I'm the third baker since the 50s." She added a line that sums up the whole place: "Baking is very strong in the Hill Country of Texas."

Paula Hayward and Jack Cushman, the family behind the counter

Bear Moon is owned and run by Paula Hayward and Jack Cushman. Hayward is a trained chef with more than twenty years of experience, and that training shows in everything from the laminated pastries to the bread program. The two also run Camp Bar & Feed at 421 S Main St, a few doors down, but the bakery remains the anchor of their work in Boerne. The honors on the wall tell the same story the regulars do: Best Bakery, Best Coffee, Best Sandwiches, and Best Desserts in local readers' choice awards, plus a Best New Business honor from the year the bakery opened.

What you will find inside

The counter is the whole show. Pastries are baked from scratch each morning, the bread is made in house, and the coffee is strong enough that the City of Boerne includes the cafe on its own coffee crawl of downtown. The item everyone asks about is the pigs-in-a-blanket, served since 1995 and described on the bakery's own materials as world famous. Regulars call them "piggies," and they are the first thing out of the case on busy weekends. The bakery also does small-batch breakfast and lunch, with sandwiches on house-made bread, which is part of why it holds a 4.2-star rating on Tripadvisor, where it ranks sixth among Boerne restaurants, and a 4.1-star average across more than 300 Yelp reviews as of this writing. KENS5 featured the bakery on its Neighborhood Eats series in 2023, and the San Antonio Express-News ran a feature on the bakery and its 1912-era building in early 2026.

Why we are shining the spotlight here

Every week we feature a local business that makes Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch, and the surrounding Hill Country a better place to call home. Bear Moon Bakery Cafe is exactly that. For families new to the area, it is the kind of main-street bakery that makes a small town feel familiar within a single visit. For longtime locals, it is proof that a place can stay independent and scratch-made for thirty years without losing what made it great. You can follow the whole series on the Business Highlights page, and we hope Bear Moon becomes part of your own Boerne routine.

Visit Bear Moon Bakery Cafe

You can find Bear Moon at 401 S Main St, Boerne, TX 78006. Give them a call at (830) 816-2327, or check bearmoonbakery.com for the day's menu and hours. Go early on a weekend, order the piggies and a cup of coffee, and take a minute to sit with the building's history before you head out to the Hill Country Mile. And when you go, tell them Bill Ross sent you. Supporting the places that make the Hill Country home is good for all of us.

Sources

1. Bear Moon Bakery Cafe, official website. Business description, "hand-crafted since 1995" history, and the world-famous pigs-in-a-blanket. bearmoonbakery.com
2. City of Boerne, Bear Moon Bakery community page. Community description of the bakery, its owners, and its place in Boerne. ci.boerne.tx.us
3. KENS5 Neighborhood Eats, "Boerne's Bear Moon Bakery keeps baking tradition alive." Paula Hayward's own account of taking over the bakery in 1995, the third baker since the 1950s, and the pigs-in-a-blanket. kens5.com
4. San Antonio Express-News (mySA), "Texas town's favorite breakfast spot is a 75-year-old bakery." Feature coverage of the bakery and its 1912-era building. mysanantonio.com
5. Yelp, Bear Moon Bakery (Boerne). Review history and the bakery's rating average. yelp.com

Last verified: October 30, 2026