Clark Street Bread — Is LA Becoming a Bread Town?



I don’t know what it is. For a town where nobody eats carbs, all of a sudden there are a few legit bakers plying their trade. I’ve written about Bakeshack, a farmers market operation that has been selling great loaves for a couple years. Now the Grand Central Market has these Clark Street Bread folks selling their Tartine knockoff loaves. Is all of LA having a cheat day?

Bakeshack — The Closest Thing in LA to Tartine’s Bread

Bakeshack is a new bread baker that has been setting up shop at farmers markets in the OC, and now is coming to the Playa Vista farmers market. They sell big, chewy loaves that are unlike almost any other bread in LA. In fact, it’s really almost a ripoff of SF’s Tartine.

This is some seriously great bread. It tastes like they just followed Chad Robertson’s directions in his Tartine cookbook. A sourdough that is not very sour. A crust that is charred but not tough or crisp. Moist chewiness is the signature here, with a bit of sour and a bit of salt.

Huckleberry – the Best Bakery in LA

Apologies to my ones of readers for the lack of posts lately. I have a little breathing space for a couple weeks, so you should see more douchey comments via this outlet.

I have been meaning to update with posts about some of my favorite places, rather than just places I’ve been to for the first time. Which brings us to Huckleberry, the place I wind up comparing all other pastries in LA to.

Starbucks Pastry Update – La Boulange Is La Okay

I have nothing but admiration for Starbucks as a corporate entity. Despite being a mammoth, they pay their workers fairly, give them benefits, try to do some fair trade, and let people lounge around their shops for hours buying little to nothing. I would be a meaner giant.

But I pretty much hate their coffee and feel even worse about their old pastry program. It was an affront to carbs.

But in their infinite wisdom, the overlords at Starbucks recognized that they were forcing terribleness down America’s throats. We, ‘Merica, were buying those terrible pastries anyways, so it is all the more impressive that Starbucks decided to make a change.

Enter La Boulange. Via a $100 million buyout, Starbucks is rolling out a totally revamped menu of baked goods with recipes from the La Boulange kitchen. Was that money well spent?

Starbucks Screws Up Another Pastry – Morning Bun Update

After very mildly raving about a pastry at Starbucks that stood out from the pastry case by not being terrible, I come, hat in hand, to apologize to my ones of readers to deliver the bad news — EVERYTHING IN THE STARBUCKS PASTRY CASE IS STILL TERRIBLE.

Tartine Bakery in SF – Morning Buns in the Motherland

The mother of Huckleberry and Sweet Rose Creamery has been beckoning with the siren call of morning buns. In SF, I made a detour to see if Tartine would live up to its legendary reputation as maybe the best bakery in the Bay Area.

Starbucks Morning Bun – a Not Terrible Starbucks Pastry

I had a morning bun at Starbucks finally. I had seen it the last few times I’ve been to Starbucks but had refrained because of the inevitable feelings of disappointment that follow each bite of Starbucks baked goods. But hey, this was not bad . . .