If you caught our first spotlight on Baby’s Buns & Buckets, you already know the origin story: three sisters, a mother’s legendary honey pork slider, and a plan that was supposed to be a secret until it wasn’t. Since then, a lot has happened, and we revisited with Sage, Ginger, and Senna to hear where Baby’s has been and where it’s going.
From left to right: Ginger, Senna and Sage.
For anyone just joining us: Baby’s Buns & Buckets is a Thai-American fast casual food concept born out of the pandemic, when the sisters decided it was finally time to take their family’s food legacy and build something of their own around it.
Their mother, Lil Chef Mama, founder of Thank You Come Again, also at Dekalb Market Hall, has been in the restaurant industry since the 1980s, and over the years she had always found small ways to weave her family into her brand, naming restaurants after herself and her children.
There was one named after every sibling but Senna, the youngest. So, when the sisters branched out, Sage was clear about one thing: this one was Senna’s. They used her nickname, Baby, and handed her ownership of it. Baby’s Buns & Buckets was hers, and they were going to build it together.
The glowing “Baby’s Buns & Buckets” sign
The concept itself grew out of something their mother had been perfecting for years. Her honey pork slider had long been a beloved recipe: a bite that she had added to bring a modern twist to Thai cuisine, and the sisters had always believed there was a standalone concept hiding inside it. In August 2022, they brought the concept to life at the stall directly across from Thank You Come Again.
And it couldn’t have landed anywhere better. Downtown Brooklyn has been riding a sustained wave of energy and development, with new businesses, a growing creative community, and a neighborhood that shows up for its local businesses.
DeKalb Market Hall has been a big part of that, bringing programming, activations, and a variety and quality of food that makes it one of the best food halls in the city. For Baby’s, it hasn’t just been a place to set up shop. It’s a community. The sisters have built friendships with fellow vendors, leaned on their mother across the way when things got hectic, and found customers who keep coming back. Downtown Brooklyn has that kind of pull, and Baby’s Buns & Buckets fits right in.
Sliders from Baby’s, Buns & Buckets.
Sage smiles under the iconic Baby’s sign.
What started as a hectic, understaffed opening, with more customers than they were prepared for, has grown into a well-oiled machine. Ginger handles operations, Sage leads creative direction: the look and feel of the space, social media, brand partnerships, and recipe development for collaborations.
Senna runs the kitchen and is the one who takes Sage’s vision and makes it real. “I just dream big and the sky’s the limit,” Sage says, “and my sisters know how to deliver.”
Their mission, as they’ve described it, is to create a new genre of Thai-American fast food, something that doesn’t really exist in the way that fast casual Chinese food does. They want to take the flavors their mother has been perfecting for decades and make them fast, accessible, and consistent without losing what makes them special. “People want quality and they want it fast,” says Ginger. “We’ve always had the quality in our family’s food but were lacking the speed, which we’re now achieving with the dishes at Baby’s.”
The menu is small but hits hard. Think sticky rice topped with grilled honey pork, fried chicken thighs served over fatty rice with som tum slaw, buckets of nuggets with fries, and the grilled honey pork bun that started it all: sweet and savory pork tucked into a baby brioche with garlic mayo and greens. Every dish carries the flavors their mother built her career on, just faster, sharper, and built for the way people eat today.
A glimpse behind the counter at Baby’s
Since opening at DeKalb Market Hall, the sisters have been growing their presence across the city through pop-ups: Bouldering Project Brooklyn, Other Half Brewery in Domino Park, and the Brooklyn Museum. Each pop-up has been a chance to experiment, test new ideas, and connect with new communities. Merchandise is in the works. A second location is being finalized, not a copy of Baby’s, but an evolution. A new concept brought to you by the same family. Details are still being kept close, but it’s in the works.
Their advice to other entrepreneurs, especially women building something from the ground up, hasn’t changed since we first spoke. Keep moving forward. Trust the product. “Confidence is key,” Senna says. “If you know you have a good product, everyone else will know you have a good product.”
Baby’s Buns & Buckets is at DeKalb Market Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. Stop in, order the honey pork slider, and follow along to catch their next pop-up.
