To my understanding, apps embedded into the admin dashboard are the strongly recommended way to build, but the nature of my app requires a non embedded platform that can pull data from a store. Now with the app bridge and all of the changes to the api, what is the best practice for me to implement ?
You won’t be able to use Shopify App Bridge if you are developing an app outside of Shopify Admin or use any of its features.
You’ll need to authenticate your app using one of the methods recommended here and then build our your own API. 