Serving Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and the Greater Wilshire neighborhoods of Los Angeles since 2011.

La Boulange on La Brea Opening Today

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La Boulange opens today on the corner of La Brea and Fourth and promises some great food in a beautiful environment, right on the edge of Hancock Park. Open Wednesday evening for a press preview, La Boulange hosted introductory lunches earlier in the week for residents and businesses located nearby.

This is the first “all-day” La Boulange, known in San Francisco for its family of 22 bakery restaurants that serve breakfast and lunch. It is also the company’s first foray outside of San Francisco. The menu is based on California-sourced foods that have been tried and true in La Boulange in San Francisco, and will change seasonally. The focus is on breakfast (served all day), soups, sandwiches, salads and burgers – all reasonably priced and ordered at the counter, then delivered to table. Specialties include duck confit hash and a seasonal vegetable tartine, not to mention their french baked goods and breads, super thick milkshakes, espresso drinks and specialty house cocktail concoctions made with beer or wine and seasonal fruits and simple syrups.

La Boulange founder Pascal Riga spoke enthusiastically to the crowd about his early beginnings as a baker in the area.
La Boulange founder Pascal Riga spoke enthusiastically to the crowd about his early beginnings as a baker in the area.

La Boulange founder Pascal Rigo was present at last night’s event, cheerfully sharing his favorite menu items and reminiscing about the beginning of the bakery, then named Boulangerie, in San Francisco in 1999. Looking across busy La Brea Ave. he remembered  delivering fresh ciabatta to Ca’Brea, as well as his early days baking bread for chef Michele Richard at Citrus. “It’s really rich history for me,” Rigo told the crowd, “to come back here to a city I love and bring back bread and good food again.”

La Boulange was purchased by Starbucks in 2012 with the intention of building a “differentiated brand of premium bakery cafes” and the La Brea shop is the first offspring of this concept. La Boulange also now supplies the thousands of Starbucks cafes with the fresh bakery goods that it bakes up in facilities scattered around the country.

The newly constructed ‘modern farmhouse inspired’ eatery has an open floor plan banked by two-story tall windows looking out over La Brea and  a mix of small tables and long communal tables. The fixtures, many made from reclaimed materials, include mounted bread peels, walls of mason jar LED lights, butcher block counters, and an olive basket chandelier, the restaurant’s designer, Erich Melé told the Buzz.  We particularly like the concrete floor stenciled with a floral motif that appears at first like an aged tile floor, and ties the three distinct dining areas together.

There is parking in a back lot accessed off Fourth St, and street parking available (just not during morning and evening rush hour.)  Outside there is seating for 20 people at tables tucked in behind low cement walls.

The ambiance, food, pricing and ease of pick up ‘to go’ orders will no doubt delight many residents in the area, and the outdoor patio is sure to bring a lively street presence to this section of lower La Brea.

La Boulange
359 S. La Brea Ave
7 am – 10 pm daily
 
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Starbucks in-house designer Erich.
Starbucks in-house designer Erich Melé.

 

 

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Julie Grist
Julie Grist
Julie co-founded the Larchmont Buzz with fellow buzzer Mary Hawley in 2011 and served as Editor, Publisher and writer for the hive for many years until the sale of the Buzz in August 2015. She is still circling the hive as an occasional writer.

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