LOS ANGELES Breadbar here. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
The high-end bakery-cafe, whose European-style artisanal breads are center-of-the-plate attractions for sizeable crowds of diners, represents a fresh wind blowing from the West in the all-day bakery-cafe segment. With two units in operation and two more scheduled to open before the end of the year, Breadbar ups the ante with plans to add wine and gourmet cheeses to the segment’s traditional lineup of soups, sandwiches and salads—all to better highlight bread as the star of the show. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Breadbar is not alone on the local baked-goods landscape. Los Angeles, where people only recently seemed to have stopped blaming carbohydrates for unwanted pounds, has become an oven-hot target market for several bread-focused chains, including Panera Bread, Corner Bakery and Le Pain Quotidien, as well as locally developed independent concepts. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Longtime Los Angeles chef-restaurateur Hans Röckenwagner, for example, recently opened Three Square Bakery & Cafe in the city’s Venice beach community, where he offers breakfast and lunch and plans to add dinner service soon. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
The City Bakery, a concept developed by Maury Rubin in New York, last year opened an outpost in West Los Angeles. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Of course, good bread is not a new concept to the city. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Chef Nancy Silverton is credited with launching an artisanal bread movement on the West Coast when she founded La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles in 1989 in a storefront facility initially designed to provide bread and pastries to the adjacent restaurant Campanile, which she founded with her former husband, Mark Peel. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
In 2001, Irish baking conglomerate IAWS Foods Inc., based in Dublin, bought La Brea Bakery, which now is known for mass production of par-baked artisanal breads for retail and wholesale. The brand also has two bakery-cafes: the original La Brea Avenue location and one in the Downtown Disney entertainment mall in Anaheim, Calif. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Along came the low-carb craze, however, which some say put the quality-bread movement on hold for several years. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Now, carbs are back on the plate and the public is “ready for something completely new,” said Ali Chalabi, Breadbar’s co-owner. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Breadbar first opened in Los Angeles in 2005, offering a line of breads and a menu of sandwiches, salads, soups and other dishes designed to complement the various loaves. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
The concept was developed with the input of partner Eric Kayser, an acclaimed French baker known for his bakeries in Paris. Breadbar head baker Nicolas Laugé trained under Kayser and uses the same Old World techniques. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Laugé attempts to translate the authentically French recipes into something more adventurous that differentiates the brand. Bread varieties range from the massive, round Rustic Millstone loaf, about $12, to Golden West loaves, ranging from $2 to $5. They might be spiced with turmeric or studded with raisins, nuts or chocolate chunks. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Most menu items feature bread, or guests can order just bread. A basket of six varieties for two, served with butter, preserves and hot drinks, is $9.95. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Among sandwiches, a best-seller is the $8.95 Alpine Chalet Club made with roasted turkey, mesclun, avocado, applewood-smoked bacon, roma tomatoes and red onions stuffed into a mini-loaf studded with Emmental cheese. At Breadbar’s newest Los Angeles location, in the high-style Century City mall, per-person checks range from $17 to $20, said Chalabi, who declined to divulge other financial details. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
The first Breadbar, a stand-alone unit near the Beverly Center mall, is considered a test site. The second Breadbar opened in October with a sleek, modern design, which is the format Chalabi intends to grow. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
The 3,500-square-foot restaurant has a large patio and seats 120. Arrays of newspapers and a soundtrack of contemporary music encourage lingering. Plans for smaller prototypes of 1,600 square feet and 500 square feet have been developed for locations that would offer only breakfast and lunch and limited menus. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Chalabi has applied for a wine and beer license and plans to offer 20 to 30 wines, along with a line of fancy cheeses. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
A “bread-elier”—the bakery equivalent of a sommelier—offers help to guests in their selections of loaves and instructions on proper bread storage and serves as a host at events for bread aficionados. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Dough for the breads is prepared daily in a central bakery for baking at the individual restaurants. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Chalabi plans to cluster 10 to 12 cafes around each baking facility, which also would sell loaves wholesale to other restaurants. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Breadbar’s wholesale business accounts for about 30 percent of sales and supplies high-end clients, including the Los Angeles location of The City Bakery, the chic, New York bakery-cafe concept known for pretzel croissants, desserts and haute hot chocolate. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Los Angeles’ branch of The City Bakery has a somewhat abridged menu, compared with New York’s, and offers such health-oriented options as scrambled tofu and comfort foods like fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. Desserts are known to draw the most attention, however, including pear-raisin danishes and chocolate custard tarts. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Wholesale has also been a feature of Röckenwagner’s bakeries over the years. The chef first opened his eponymous restaurant in Venice, Calif., in 1985 and later moved it to Santa Monica. The breads baked for the restaurants were also available wholesale and at farmers markets. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Röckenwagner sold his original restaurant last year and then opened a bakery production facility called R, which has a small retail space offering pastries and coffees. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Last month Röckenwagner, along with partner and chef de cuisine Wolfgang Gussmack, opened Three Square, a retail outlet for European-style breads and pastries. The bakery is linked by a courtyard to Röckenwagner’s soon-to-open cafe in the trendy Abbot-Kinney area of Venice. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
The cafe menu will feature such breakfast dishes as German-style apple pancakes and sweet potato-pecan pancakes, with an average ticket of $10 to $15. Lunch might include a sandwich of leberkäse, a Bavarian-style paté, as well as more traditional ham and cheese sandwiches and other offerings, with an average ticket of $15 to $20. The planned dinner menu would feature various soufflés and chicken pot pie. Beer and wine also would be available. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Desserts, such as linzertorte and Black Forest cake, would be highlighted, and the bakery and cafe would feature Röckenwagner’s signature line of pretzel breads. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Röckenwagner sees room for growth in the segment, despite the increased competition from rival bakery-cafes in Los Angeles. “We each have our own style,” he said. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Le Pain Quotidien, a Belgium-based chain with 70 units worldwide, operates eight in Los Angeles and has three more scheduled to open there later this year. The chain has 12 units in New York, and five more are scheduled to open on the East Coast, including a new U.S. hub for the chain, in Washington. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Richmond Heights, Mo.-based Panera Bread, with 1,027 units, is also looking for more growth in Southern California, where it now has about 17 units. Company officials plan to grow the system at a rate of 16 percent to 18 percent over the next three to five years nationwide, said Jeff Kip, Panera’s senior vice president and chief financial officer. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
Il Fornaio America Corp., based in Corte Madera, Calif., operates 22 upscale Italian restaurants with bakery-cafe adjuncts. The chain currently has five locations and a commissary production bakery in the Los Angeles area, where the company intends this year to launch a larger bakery facility to better service its restaurants and wholesale accounts, such as the Mimi’s Cafe chain and Trader Joe’s grocery stores, and potentially to supply sibling brand Corner Bakery Cafe, said Michael Mindel, marketing vice president of Il Fornaio. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as
About 25 of Corner Bakery’s 94 company-owned units are in Southern California, and two more are scheduled to open during this year’s first quarter. —Anyone looking for confirmation of bread’s comeback after the low-carb craze only has to look as far as