GAIL's Bakery St Albans

You'll find yourself drawn in by the smell of fresh-baked sourdough wafting across Market Place—it's the kind of aroma that makes you abandon your plans and queue up instead. GAIL's has that confident, unfussy London energy without any pretension; locals pile in for their morning pastries and espresso before heading to work or wandering the cathedral quarter. The space buzzes with the sort of casual contentment you get when good bread and decent coffee collide, and unlike the chains dotted around St Albans, this actually feels like somewhere that cares about what it's making.