This Beloved Small-Town Texas Bakery Is a Taste of 150 Years of History

I have a rule about bakeries. If the cookie in the case has pink frosting and no explanation, buy it. Somebody has been making that cookie the same way for longer than you have been alive, and they are not about to start justifying it to you.

That rule was practically written for Naegelin’s Bakery in New Braunfels. The doors have been opening at dawn since 1868, and the front room smells of warm cinnamon and yeast before you reach the counter.

It is the oldest continuously operating bakery in Texas, and the recipes have not budged in six generations.

Below, I will walk you through the strudel that built the place, the kolaches and lebkuchen that fill the cases, the bread the town has eaten for six generations, and the story of a Civil War veteran who started it all with a sack of flour.

The Strudel That Started It All

Start with the apple strudel, because everyone does. It is made from the recipe Edouard Naegelin Sr. brought to town more than 150 years ago, and the bakery still bakes it every morning.

Spiced apples and raisins inside, layers of flaky pastry outside, and a top that shatters when you press a fork into it.

You can buy it as a slice, a half, or a whole strudel, and I would go for at least a half. The slice is the sensible order. The half is the one you will be glad you made once you are back on the highway.

Apple is the classic, but cherry and peach strudel share the case. One Tripadvisor reviewer put it plainly: “the strudel is out of this world, so flakey and delicious.” That review has company. Pick any month and you will find someone online planning a detour for a box of it.

The strudel has been shipped as far as Japan and Germany, according to the Granzin family who runs the bakery today. A German bakery in a Texas river town sending strudel back to Germany is the best review I can imagine.

Pro tip: the strudel often sells out before noon. In summer, when the river crowds roll into New Braunfels, the line can stretch out the door for it. Come early, and come hungry.

Kolaches, Lebkuchen, and the Rest of the Case

The strudel gets the fame, but the case is deep. My vote for the sleeper hit is the lebkuchen, a thick rectangular honey spice cookie with a cap of pink frosting.

It is soft, it stays soft for weeks, and it tastes like a German Christmas somebody decided to keep going year round.

Then there are the kolaches. Naegelin’s makes the fruit filled kind, and the Granzins added a lineup of meat kolaches that has become its own reason to visit. Jalapeño sausage is the one people talk about.

There is also a bratwurst kolache, a sausage and cheese, and a baby sausage for anyone who wants two. Kolaches are Czech by birth, but this German bakery has been making them long enough to claim them.

Did you know the bakery makes a sweet German pretzel? It is soft, finished with pecans, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and one reviewer called it “the best I’ve ever had.”

I have never met a cinnamon pretzel I did not like, and this one has a century of practice behind it.

Keep going down the case and you will find butter pecan snails, sticky buns, cinnamon buns, and a banana nut pound cake that regulars buy by the loaf. The cookie trays run from chocolate chip and oatmeal to gingerbread and decorated specialty shapes.

Those decorated cookies deserve a mention of their own. The bakery makes Longhorn shaped cookies and a “Gig ‘Em” thumbs up cookie, which is about as Texas as a German bakery can get. Buy one of each and let the car decide who wins.

The donut counter holds glazed, cinnamon, a bacon breakfast donut, and fried pies. The pie shelf has pecan, apple, blueberry, key lime, and something called Nanny’s Pie that I would order on the name alone.

One reviewer wrote that the peach pie “was worth driving from North Austin for.” That is a ninety minute round trip, and I understand it completely.

Bread the Way New Braunfels Has Always Eaten It

Before the strudel made it famous, Naegelin’s was a bread bakery, and it still is. The German rye and the pumpernickel are the loaves that tie the case back to the Alsace of the founder’s childhood. Dense, dark, and made to be sliced thin under butter and sausage.

There is a whole shelf beyond those two. Sourdough, honey wheat, multigrain, a marble loaf, a French loaf, cinnamon raisin, and a pumpkin bread. The Jap and cheese buns, a New Braunfels favorite, are the ones to grab if you plan to picnic on the Comal.

The hamburger buns and dinner rolls are the quiet workhorses. Naegelin’s supplies buns to local restaurants, so there is a good chance you have already eaten its bread in town without knowing it. Poppy seed buns and hard rolls round out the shelf.

Bread was the original business, and the original delivery method is my favorite detail from the bakery’s own history. In the early years, loaves went out on a wagon the moment they left the oven.

A metal bell announced the wagon, and regulars left containers on their porches so hot bread could be dropped off even when nobody was home.

A Sack of Flour and Less Than a Dollar

The bakery was founded in 1868 by Edouard Naegelin Sr., and the story of how he got there makes you want to try harder. He was born in 1844 in Alsace-Lorraine, on the border of France and Germany, and his parents brought him to America at age two.

At 19 he fought in the Civil War. After the war he opened a bakery in San Antonio with a partner, and it failed. So at 24 he arrived in New Braunfels with a sack of flour and less than a dollar, and he started over.

That first bakery sat in the Goldebagen building, where City Hall stands today. In 1870 he moved the business to South Seguin Avenue, and in 1874 he bought the property outright. That is the address you will walk into now. The family lived upstairs, above the ovens.

Edouard ran the bakery with his wife, Francisca Seekatz Naegelin, until his death in 1923. His son Edward Jr. and daughter Leonie stepped in, and by 1924 the founder’s grandson Edward was managing the place with his wife Laura. The building got a remodel in 1935.

Edward and Laura’s son, Clinton Frank Naegelin, carried the bakery through the next stretch of the 20th century. In the early 1980s the family sold it to the Granzins, who kept the name, the location, and every recipe. Wilburn Granzin made the purchase, and his grandchildren work the counter today.

“Everything is authentic German,” Preslee Granzin told the New Braunfels tourism office when the bakery marked its 155th year in 2023. “That’s our main goal, keeping history alive.” The 150th anniversary in 2018 got its own celebration, and the bakery has since passed that too.

What strikes me most is what has not changed. The founder’s strudel recipe is still the strudel recipe.

The bakery has been through the Depression, two world wars, a century of food fads, and a pandemic, and it answered all of them by opening the door at 6:30 and putting the same things in the case.

What It Feels Like Inside

The bakery fills about 8,000 square feet of a historic downtown building, but the part you will remember is the front room. Long glass cases, trays of strudel and cookies stacked in rows, and a counter where someone will happily explain the difference between the strudels if you ask.

The family has kept modernizing to a minimum on purpose, so the room still carries an 1800s feel. There are no screens to order from. You point, they box, you pay, and you walk out into downtown New Braunfels with a white bag going translucent at the bottom.

I love that there is a drive-thru window too. It feels almost cheeky, a 19th century bakery handing kolaches through a car window, but on a hot July morning you will be grateful for it. There is outdoor seating if you want to eat right away.

One more thing to look for: the bakery sells scented candles in flavors like Wedding Cake, Apple Strudel, and Cranberry Scone. If you cannot take the smell of the front room home in a box, this is the next best option.

Tips for Your First Visit

Go in the morning. Everything is freshest before 10, and the strudel is most likely to still be there. Weekday mornings are calmer than weekends, and summer weekends are the busiest of all thanks to the tubers and the water park crowds.

If you are picking up for a group, call ahead. The bakery does custom cakes, wedding cakes, and catering, and it delivers around New Braunfels and San Antonio. The Longhorn and Aggie cookies make a good game day order.

Pair the visit with the rest of downtown. Main Plaza is a short walk, and the historic district around it is made for a slow loop with a pastry in hand. If you are in town for Wurstfest in November, this is the natural breakfast stop.

Did you know New Braunfels was founded by German settlers in 1845? That is why a bakery like this could take root here and why the town still feels a little Bavarian at the edges. Naegelin’s is the oldest piece of that story you can eat.

How to Get There

Where: Naegelin’s Bakery, 129 S Seguin Ave, New Braunfels, TX 78130

Phone: (830) 625-5722. Hours are Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hours can shift around holidays, so check the bakery’s website or call before a long drive.

New Braunfels sits on Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Austin, about 30 miles from San Antonio and roughly 50 from Austin. The bakery is downtown, near Main Plaza, with street parking on Seguin Avenue and the surrounding blocks.

Start Planning Your Strudel Run

Some places are worth a trip because they are new. This one is worth a trip because it is not. The same address since 1870, the same strudel since 1868, and a pink frosted cookie that has outlasted every trend that tried to replace it.

So plan your drive down I-35, get there before the strudel is gone, and order more than you think you need.

You will be eating a recipe that crossed an ocean, survived a war, and set up shop in a Texas river town when the town itself was barely 20 years old. Bring a bigger box.

Featured image: Eone Shopforyou via Naegelin’s German Bakery