At an old-school bar with tall shiny stools, the sound of bright jazzy piano in the background matches the brassy retro booths. The smell of warm, crusty dough plays through the air with the piano’s notes, and decadent chocolate cakes enchant from behind their tall glass display. Everything seems to be dusted with bronze except for the pop tarts, which are not just dusted, but smothered with a rainbow of sprinkles. 

It is here, at Ted’s Bulletin, where executive pastry chef Todd Miller and his team dream up the toasted delights that are Ted’s Tarts. 

Ted’s Tarts were created when the first Ted’s opened on Capitol Hill five years ago. The chef at the time, as well as the owners, Mark and Ty Neal, wanted to create a nostalgic dessert that reminded people of their childhoods. The Neal brothers named the restaurant after their father, Ted, who always cooked with fresh-picked ingredients and always had a pot of something cooking to feed neighbors and guests. The three came up with the pop tart, initially only serving a strawberry flavor. 

Since then, Ted’s Tarts have evolved and become an iconic staple of the Washington brunch scene. 

Miller said the tarts and the traditional dessert menu at Ted’s imbue childhood classics with a modern twist. The tarts are undoubtedly the bakery’s most popular item, selling about 5,000 a week among all five locations, Miller said. When making Ted’s Tarts, Miller said, he hopes to evoke that old feeling of waking up to the sweet, warm, doughy smell of pop tarts toasting in the oven, but, he said, “ours are a little bit different – more delicate, different fillings, more homemade – like Grandma would make.”

Ted’s Tarts are always available in four core flavors: strawberry, blueberry cheesecake, brown sugar and cinnamon, and salted caramel, which just replaced a peanut butter bacon flavor. Every few months, Miller creates a new recipe for a seasonal surprise. Right now, you can find the fall-themed apple pie tart. Every filling except strawberry is made in-house by Miller and his team of prep cooks, who have been carefully trained to replicate his recipes. 

Miller comes up with all the flavors and recipes, gets them approved by the head chef and holds tastings with the staff to make sure the recipes are just right. 

Miller got his start in baking 25 years ago when he worked on the savory side of the kitchen. One day he helped a pastry chef out, he said, and it snowballed from there. Miller has been working at Ted’s for a year and a half now, and he has re-created almost all of the dessert recipes. 

Before Miller was the executive pastry chef, Ted’s didn’t really have a separate dessert menu, and each location did its own thing, he said. Now, Miller is the only executive pastry chef for Ted’s Bulletin, and he visits different locations daily to make sure things are running smoothly. 

The Ted’s dessert menu now includes Miller’s recipes for chocolate cream pie, banana cream pie, six-layer devil’s food cake, honey carrot cake, banana splits, butterscotch pudding, homemade snowballs and more. At the 14th Street location, a larger bakery allows the staff to also make donuts, cookies and brownies from recipes written before Miller became executive pastry chef. 

He also creates dessert menus for Matchbox Food Group restaurants, which include Ted’s Bulletin and DC-3, a hotdog joint on 8th Street. There are currently five Ted’s Bulletin restaurants and six Matchbox pizza restaurants, but there are plans to expand in the next few years. Miller said the next Ted’s will not open in the area. 

The company is nonetheless expanding its scope in Washington, getting involved with UberEATS, the food-delivery system Uber unveiled in the capital on Aug. 25. Miller said about 280 individually wrapped Ted’s Tarts were distributed through UberEATS. 

Despite limited marketing, Ted’s Tarts have made their way around Washington’s food scene and become a unique brunch treat. Miller’s favorite? 

“I like the salted caramel – just that combination of salty and sweet is really good. You can crumble it up over vanilla ice cream. … The brown sugar oozes out and gets crusted to the dough.”

So what is in Ted’s Tarts and how are they made? Here’s a breakdown of the tarts:

Let’s start with the dough. Ted’s Tarts are made with a combination of flour, butter, sugar and vanilla, which creates a light base that’s a little more delicate than a pie dough. The cooks roll out the dough until it’s very thin, cut it into the classic rectangular shape, put the different fillings in, flip the top over the filling, pat it down and freeze it. They then bake the frozen tarts for 10 minutes before flipping the pan and cooking them for an additional five minutes. This helps them cook evenly.

The flavors:

Strawberry: 2/5 pop tarts

2 poptarts

A strawberry jam filling purchased from a wholesaler, topped with sprinkles. 

This filling was store-bought, and it showed. Although this classic is the most popular flavor, a homemade jam could give it richer flavors to balance the sweetness. 

Blueberry cheesecake: 3/5 pop tarts

3 poptarts

A blueberry compote (blueberries cooked in sugar or syrup) mixed with a cheesecake filling and topped with sprinkles. 

This filling was tasty, but neither flavor was particularly pronounced. It could use more sweetness from the blueberries and more creaminess from the cheesecake.

Brown sugar and cinnamon: 4/5 pop tarts 

4 poptarts

A filling made with rolled oats to bind the mixture of cinnamon and brown sugar. Topped with more cinnamon and sugar. 

This filling was sweet and simple. The rolled oats add a certain heartiness that won’t leave you disappointed. Topped with sprinkles. 

Salted Caramel: 4/5 pop tarts

4 poptarts

A cinnamon, brown sugar and salt filling with a salted caramel glaze and fresh sea salt on top.

This combination of sweet and salty is unbeatable. However, there was a little too much salt on top and it overpowered the sweetness. 

Apple Pie: 4.5/5 pop tarts

4.5 poptarts

An apple pie filling topped with cinnamon, sugar and an apple crisp. To make the crisps, the chefs thinly slice Granny Smith apples, toss them with cinnamon and sugar and bake them in the oven for 30 minutes. 

This was by far the best flavor. The apple crisp was tart and sweet with a crunch that added a whole new dimension of flavor and texture. The filling was sweet and warm — exactly like apple pie should be. 

Overall, every flavor could definitely have used more filling. You can’t have too much of a good thing, right?