Hearth Bakery expands with Euro-style patisserie in Highland

Hearth Bakery just can’t stop baking things. For years, the popular cafe has attracted lines at its locations in RiNo, Uptown, Highland and Littleton for its coffee, baked breads, and pastries. Earlier this year, the Uptown spot began hosting the pizza pop-up After School Pizza. 

Now, the Highland outpost, which opened in 2025, is expanding the baking empire with a European-style pastry shop called Hearth Patisserie, located directly next door to the former Happy Cakes space at 3621 W. 32nd Ave. 

Unlike Hearth’s existing bakeries and coffee shops, which focus on morning pastries, breads and coffee, the new shop is designed around afternoon and evening desserts. Think higher-end, French-inspired classics and elaborate individual desserts. The menu at launch includes items like the cream puff-like chouquettes, the pate-a-choux showcase Paris-Brest (filled with hazelnut praline, mousseline and pralinettes) and an array of tarts with fillings ranging from strawberry with almond and mascarpone cream to coconut lime, Elaborate gâteaux cakes, as well as flans, brownies, and tiramisu are also on the menu.

The new concept is led by Hearth pastry chef Kevin McCormick, who brings 20 years of experience to the role with a career that began at Per Se in New York City, continued at L2O and Good Ambler in Chicago, and then at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder. In Denver, he most recently ran the pastry program at Baume Dessert Bar and served as culinary director at Union Station.

The expansion comes just over four years after Matt Quinlisk launched Hearth. The bakery began as a wholesale operation and pop-up, selling at farmers’ markets before opening its first permanent location in RiNo in 2022. Hearth’s second location, in Uptown, opened in November 2024, followed by both the Highland shop and a Littleton location in 2025.

From the get-go, Hearth has maintained a high bar on baking standards, with both the bread and pastry programs built around locally milled flours. Its classic croissants require a multiday process and French butter to produce their distinctive flaky layers. The bakery’s almond croissant had already become a customer favorite, alongside savory versions and a rotating selection of danishes and other pastries.

Although not its first location, the Highland neighborhood is, in many ways, the genesis of the Hearth brand, as it originally got its footing in the Highlands Farmers’ Market. And expanding the Highland location into new products, rather than opening yet another coffee-focused cafe, remains in line with Quinlisk’s original strategy. 

“I did not intend to have a bunch of coffee shops,” Quinlisk told Westword in 2025. “It’s just the model that works for us and allows us to feed the most people and have a good impact.”

Hearth Patisserie represents a somewhat different direction. Rather than simply adding another version of the bakery’s existing coffee-and-pastry model, it gives Hearth a place to explore more elaborate pastry work and extends the brand’s hours deeper into the day. 

The new patisserie also puts two distinct sides of the business under one roof: A neighborhood bakery and coffee shop, where customers can start the day with sourdough bread, croissants and coffee, with a pastry shop next door designed to give them a reason to come back later.

Hearth Patisserie is located at 3621 W. 32nd Ave., open from noon to 8 p.m, Wednesday through Saturday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit hearthdenver.com.