Lodge Bread brick and mortar open in Culver City

Yeah, they changed from Sunday to Monday for their closed day. Smart business-wise - I am pretty sure Sundays are as busy as Saturdays for them.

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works for me, I can now make it part of my Sunday Mar Vista Farmer’s routine.

I just went by today, unfortunately it was late, around 3:00pm and they had no loaves left to sell.

i don’t blame them for that, though. I’ll give them another shot.

Yeah, Sunday would definitely be a much busier day for them in my opinion since you have the neighborhood denizens hitting up the fucking joint, as well as those who are making a special foodie trip. And much more revenue on a Sunday. For Mondays, I don’t think that there are many workers in the area who would hit it up before work or for a light lunch, etc. So Sunday does work way better. They are looking closely at that bottom line. And that’s a sound idea so that they may remain in perpetual, ongoing existence, rather than a fleeting existential thought of a bakery.

Who knew that toast with jam and a cappachino would be so simple so fucking great ???

Yeah, I went by around 1:45 yesterday and they were out of rounds they had baked that day. However, they did have a day-old seeded round that they sold to me for half-off. Gladly took it. Got home, popped a slice in the toaster, good as new.

Sorry to hear you got shut out. I usually go to grab bread at the same time at most places. Considering how busy Lodge was last Saturday, I figured it would be even busier this weekend. With that in mind, I went early - around 0715 - to assure I’d get some bread.

As I was pondering what to get besides the round of khorasan, a couple walked up asking if they could purchase a whole loaf of the pumpkin bread. The couple was told by one of the bakers from the kitchen that they couldn’t let go of a whole loaf at that time but “might” be able to sell them one later in the day.

The rate of output of their products is understandably slow relative to the demand. Just talking briefly with the gentleman at the counter over the past couple of Saturdays leaves me with the strong impression that Lodge is committed to specific sourcing and creating as much of their own ingredients in-house as possible.

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Francis knew!

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In all seriousness, how could good toast + good jam + good cappuccino not be great? :wink:

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you do have a fucking point there.

I guess my second thought is people have caught on and see the value in it besides having toast and jam at home.

interestingly enough i can’t wait to go back.

go figure.

When I lived in Long Beach, there is this nice neighborhood bakery called Babettes Feast. They baked bread fresh and would slice on request. it was crusty, it was soft, most of all it was fresh. When I moved to the Westside, I was floored that no place like that existed.

Since then I don’t even live on the westside anymore. I can go to Bread Lounge (they even have a slicer) and there is Kenter Loaves at Urban Raddish. But this new age artisanal, heritiage wheat loaves are good for table bread. Not great for sandwich bread. Babette’s loaves were not the best in terms of flavor, crust or crumb, but they are crusty enough for both table and soft enough to make a good sandwich.

Lodge Bread FINALLY bridges that gap. P got me a loaf of their olive bread and we ate it for four meals straight. First day we made a sandwich and it was amazing. The crust was perfectly CRISP, but it yieled perfectly to every bite. The Crumb was so so soft, but held together.

We grilled it and had it with pureed soup. We toasted it and topped with Veggie Meatballs and smothered it in tomato sauce. I have no idea if they have a slicer, but this is spectacular all purpose bread.

P also brought home a slice of their coffee cake. A bit greasy. VERY tender. I’ll have to try more of their pastries and now with Pitchoun showing up at the Howard Hughes Farmers Market, it’s going to take a bit for me to consider them taking the pastry game on this side of town too.

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to add to Dommy’s post:

for a sandwich, try the Lodge whole wheat bread slathered with mashed fresh avocado topped with good quality bay shrimp drizzled with what my mom used to call “russian dressing”

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I was really impressed with them at the bread festival in GCM, from the samples and in talking to them. That’s why I was so excited to find out they were opening near me. So thrilled they’ve lived up if not exceeded so many people’s expectations. The neighborhood sure is changing.

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westsidegal -

Ooohhhh… I want that sandwich!

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It’s pretty fucking dope. Even if it’s too cute by half.

Thanks to @Jase, @bulavinaka and all the recs from everyone on this thread. Finally got around to checking out Lodge Bread. :smile:

Cute, simple interior, even simpler menu.

Brioche + Blueberry Jam:

I wish I was able to have that Mulberry Jam everyone was salivating over, but the Blueberry Jam was solid. It tasted like a very good, freshly made jam, with farmer’s market fruit. Wasn’t a fan of the tart cream they added in there, but otherwise a nice (huge) toast appetizer?

Country Toast with Cashew Butter:

Then we have this simple sounding dish. Holy cow! :open_mouth: Freshly made Cashew Butter, drizzle of Molasses on lightly toasted freshly-baked Country bread. While the fresh Blueberry Jam and Brioche felt “better than what you can get at home,” this fresh-ground Cashew Butter with their Country Toast was in another league!

Really fragrant and nutty, and just oozing awesome! LOL :heart:

Decided to take a whole loaf of their Country Bread home, hearing from @bulavinaka and @Dommy about how good their bread was:

It’s just really great bread. Something you take for granted or forget about with store bought stuff nowadays. The inside is almost moist, pillowy, soft, and there’s a nice grain-y fragrance. It’s great!

The only bummer is I don’t know how to keep it fresh for long. I decided to freeze a portion of it and reheat it in the oven a couple days later. It reheated OK, except I couldn’t cut it when frozen LOL.

This type of bread was much better untoasted.

I can’t wait to go back and try that Mulberry Jam when it’s back. :smile:

They do serve some good stuff. Yesterday I had the cashew nut butter with banana. Good hearty breakfast for $5.

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Honest - I’m not stalking you, but I went this AM and had, “The Elvis,” as it appears on the receipt or “Alvis,” as it appears on their “Specials” sheet, which is also new to me. Yeahmamabebe - lovin’ that big hunka toast slathered with that nut butter and bananas.

I’ve been banning myself from Lodge for a couple of weeks now because I’ve been pulling a WSG - binging them bread carbs. The “Specials” sheet expands their brief menu by four items. Aside from “The Alvis/Elvis,” I tried the dark chocolate bread pudding (WSG alert - enjoy it w/ Old Rasputin) and the savory bread pudding w/ sunchokes with a dollop of their creme fraiche. Both puddings are extremely ample on the ingredients - lots of chocolate, lots of sunchokes - and the portions are more than generous. I really enjoyed both. I’d also mention that cardamom is present in the chocolate bread pudding, as it is in the oatmeal cookies. Cardamom is not very common to many in LA food culture, and my kids hate it, so I thought I’d mention it. Any, keep an eye on the Specials, or at least ask.

The cinnamon roll is more to my liking now. More of the same icing (sorry kevin), more cinnamon filling, thinner layers in the spiral, and more moist. In other words, it leans more to the traditional but in a good way. It is still a beast in size and heft.

The bread used for their toasts (pullman loaves) are available for sale. The heavier traffic on weekends calls for all of their loaves. But lodge usually has extras during the weekdays. This bread is finer in texture and obviously makes great toast.

Pizza this Sunday will be a red sauce w/ broccoli and pecorino cheese. Show up at 5PM to secure your pie.

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just arrived home from there.
half the loaf disappeared during the drive home.

now that my butter has been microwaved, i’m heading back downstairs to finish the rest of the loaf.

@westsidegal awesome! LOL. :smile:

BTW, what would you recommend for toppings on Lodge’s bread? Plugra butter?

keep in mind, these are sourdough loaves.
to my palate sourdough does really well with butter or avocado.