About 4 months ago, the LA Times published an article about Martha Stewart’s recent trip to LA. There, she was focused on visiting LA area bakeries to see what she could find.
In that LA Times article dated May 20, 2016, she states, “Everything in L.A. is with a twist, which is nice. It shows great creativity,” she added. “I think La Brea Bakery really started it. I remember eating fabulous bread in San Francisco at ACME and thinking, ‘Oh, there can’t be anything better than ACME,’ then I tasted Nancy Silverton’s and now tasting some of these wonderful offshoots.”
Drago (Santa Monica) Bread Bar (El Segundo) and Lodge Bread (Culver City) are all specialty bakeries that make premium bread. Drago is best known because they supply Mendocino Farms and Bread Bar seems to operate in the wholesale and catering space.
Lodge Bread doesn’t provide the usual baguettes or loaves. Instead, they bake whole-grain, long-fermented, high-hydration loaves that are baked extremely dark (think pumpernickel). They are also dense and quite heavy.
The bread smells wonderfully nutty and when you bit into it, you find it amazingly moist inside. Because this bread is so dense, it’s not well suited for sandwiches. Instead, I think the bread makes a wonderful avocado toast or simply served with a gourmet butter or fruit preserve.
Lodge Bread Co has a truck that sells bread in other locations like farmers markets. I happened to catch them in front of Two Guns Espresso in Manhattan Beach last weekend. I learned that they will be at Two Guns next Saturday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Oct. 1 and will move to another location.
I purchased a sprouted rye that was dark brown and quite heavy. After sampling it, I agreed with my wife that it would pair well with a nice soup.
Lodge Bread Company’s brick and mortar operation is located in Culver City.
- 11918 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA; (424) 384-5097
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lodgebreadco
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