Places that annoy me: Lodge Bread

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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I went to Lodge early one morning this weekend. I got the

Cinnamon roll
Drip coffee
Medjool date scone
Chocolate chip cookie

Total $16.50

The cinnamon roll and coffee were eaten on site, the scone and cookie came home with me.

First thing that annoyed me? There were maybe two or three customers in line, with eight staff members behind the counter. All of the staff members avoided eye contact. (I’m speaking with some authority, I have worked a previous lifetime of retail jobs.) The posted board did not have all the bakery items on it–and the bakery items did not all have identifiers with pricing included.

I asked what kind of cookies I was looking at, but with the sneeze guard and my height, communication wasn’t a natural.

Okay, onward to gluttony. I got my cinnamon roll on a flat matte brown plate, my drip coffee in a heavy white mug and my treats in a bag. The cinnamon roll was very pretty, but it had heavy citrus notes. Maybe lemon or orange blossom? I was offput by the combination.

About halfway into my roll I went to the counter to ask for a coffee refill (with mug). The one mug of coffee was $3. The counter staff told me it would be an additional $1. I really liked the coffee, didn’t like the cinnamon roll, and was ticked at feeling nickel and dimed. Could I have gotten more ounces of coffee for $3 if I had gotten it in a to-go cup? And is that the feeling I want when I go into a restaurant and pay a premium for twee eats? I don’t want to work the angles, and I want to feel as though the staff both wants to speak with me, and wants me to enjoy the experience.

I declined the honor of spending the extra dollar, left my half uneaten pastry, and took my scone and cookie home. The scone was good, and the cookie passable. (The best cookie in Los Angeles is the chocolate chocolate cookie at Huckleberry. I think it’s a $4 cookie, not particularly big. When I buy it I struggle with self loathing, when I eat it, I know I’ll be back for more.)

Anyway I might go back to Lodge to try the $9 avocado toast. I love good bread, and a woman two tables over from me had it–it looked wonderful. Some places I go to, and I love so much I start planning my return trip as I eat my first course; other places I go to, I think “Hmm. Maybe I’ll try one more thing then never darken their door again.”

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I was a very frequent visitor to Lodge. I’d drop $30,$40,$50 on bread, bread topped with stuff, pastries, cake and cookies and tip with a loose hand. I stopped going because I started to get annoyed with the service as well. The report of charred bread sure didn’t help. I went in to verify this, and sure enough - charred bread.

They might be loosing sight of what made them so enjoyable which makes me sad. I want to hit up their Sunday night pizza gig, but I fear this might be disappointing as well.

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I’m not a frequent poster, but I just had to respond to this. I go to Lodge fairly frequently - about once a week. I really like their cold brew. I went in this morning. I usually go in on Sunday morning when it’s much busier, but the friendliness of the people working was remarkable this morning. All 5 of them thanked me for coming. Normally I don’t find them rude, but it was notable how friendly they were this morning. Perhaps they read these boards?

ETA: I got a piece of toast this morning and it was not charred…though I have seen the charring that others have mentioned.

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sorry you were annoyed.
i LOVE this place
go about once a week
have always been treated wonderfully
and i LIKE the charred crust.
also, i like their pizza nights tremendously

also, i normally don’t think of places that offer such high quality coffee as being a likely source of free refills

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I’ve been twice. I got the cinnamon roll once and would not get it again. It wasn’t terrible, but it’s not particularly tasty. I want rich decadence w/ a cinnamon roll. Their’s was… meh. I’m also not as crazy about their pizza night as some. I think it’s best to stick w/ the bread there.

I’ve never had service that was overtly rude, but I didn’t feel that they were terribly welcoming or interesting in sharing about their craft, either, so I get what you’re saying. The cashier struck me as being rather awkward, so she prompted feelings of annoyed pity, rather than hate or anger, in me.

I think their coffee is pretty expensive, so I don’t think it’s out of line for them to charge you for a refill.

I haven’t had the cookie at Huckleberry, but I’d try The Cookie at Bristol Farms b/f claiming that you’ve found a winner… :wink:

If I lived close by, I’d go more frequently… But I think they’re sort of a one-trick pony (but they do that one trick really, REALLY well). And, if you’re only going to do one thing well, bread is a good choice… :wink:

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I wouldn’t call the service I received rude or overtly bad. They just often seem to be distracted, disorganized and somewhat cold at the register. If someone drops a tip in the jar, a simple “thanks” is all that is required. Doesn’t matter if it’s change (many patrons) or something more substantial (me).

The bread I speak of are not the toasts - those are breads baked in the pullman loaf pans. It’s the rounds of breads on the rack by the front window. Someone posted text and photos of “carbonized” bread from Lodge. The bread in the photo was charred. I was hoping it was a one-off or at worst a consistency issue. I went to Lodge to confirm this, and almost all the rounds were charred. If I recall, there was a row of three rounds on the bottom rack that were not charred. I am assuming that these were all the same variety of bread rounds. Why the others were charred, I don’t know. I ended up getting their rye, which was not burnt and is also baked in a pullman pan.

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our tastes differ.
i AVOID the bread in the pullman pans because it is NOT CHARRED ENOUGH

it was a good thing, for me, that their original form was NOT the pullman… . .

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Thanks WSG. I appreciate any well-crafted bread that fits my criteria (which isn’t so narrow). The “original” version of Lodge’s hand-formed bread is a thing of beauty to me. I just can’t wrap my head around the “new” version, if char is the new standard. Are the majority of the rounds now charred?

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all i know is that i try to grab the round, charred, ones.
( maybe my tastes are primitive.)

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Primitive or whatever - your tastes are 99.9% superb.

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not nearly as supurb as yours.
i look up to you.

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Charred pizza night at Lodge…

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That thing is good.

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That does look good!

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Hi westsidegal,

Then my tastes are also primitive. I haven’t been to Lodge yet, but when I buy bread I always ask for the darkest loaf and when I get pizza I always snag the pieces with the darkest crust and leave the blonder ones for my eating companions.

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from yelp…ya’ll tell me if this is burnt/charred or if that’s how it’s supposed to be.

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i can’t talk about the seeded breads because seeds don’t appeal to me.

but the cut, unseeded, one being held by a man’s hand on top of the greenish tile looks like one that i’d try to snag.

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And that’s why I trust your opinion. To me, that one has a nice dark finish - not charcoal briquettes. Don’t know what that black sea anemone is doing on it though.:wink:

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I think the first one is the one I have a biggest question on - that bottom section looks super dark.

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I’m surprised no one has mentioned how their breads seem almost gummy/underbaked on the inside?! while being charred on the outside! Their style is very purposeful and makes great toast. I do have to say that it seems like the crust is darker than when they first opened the B&M. I like the crust a dark mahogany but the char is over doing it. These days my prefered bread is at Gjusta.

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