La Brea Bakery is a retail

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who ...

, restaurant operator, and industrial baking company started in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California. Since opening its flagship store on 624 S La Brea Avenue in 1989—six months earlier than

Campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

, the restaurant it was built to serve—La Brea has opened two much larger bakeries in

Van Nuys Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909, t ...

, California, and Swedesboro, New Jersey, to serve wholesale clients. It also sells its products in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. La Brea Bakery is one of the largest sellers of fresh bread in the US. In 2001, La Brea was acquired by Aryzta AG. In 2021, Aryzta sold its interest in La Brea Bakery and its other North American brands (Aryzta North America) to

Lindsay Goldberg Lindsay Goldberg (LGLLC) is an American private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in middle-market companies in such sectors as consumer products, commodity-based manufacturing, energy services, business ser ...

. In May 2021, Aryzta North America was renamed to Aspire Bakeries.

History

Founders

Nancy Silverton Nancy Silverton (born June 20, 1954) is an American chef, baker, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the Un ...

and Mark Peel had originally wanted to open a restaurant that offered fresh-baked bread. At the time, Silverton was working at

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur. Early life and career Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname ...

Spago Spago is chef Wolfgang Puck's flagship restaurant worldwide, known for serving California cuisine. Spago is Puck's first restaurant venture. Name and history The word "spago" is Italian for "string" or "twine". The plural would be "spaghi," whi ...

. However, she found that "unless you were really set up for it, it wasn't very profitable to make your own bread. You need to have a dedicated space and you need to do wholesale to make money at it." Originally just a small storefront, in 1998 the business raised

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

10 million for a new production plant in Van Nuys and became the largest artisanal bakery in the United States. The facility prepares par-baked bread,

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening ag ...

that has been 80%

baked Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferre ...

and then quick-frozen for baking later, and employed around 100 people in 1999. La Brea breads are widely available throughout Southern California and are sold in many supermarkets. In October 2008, La Brea Bakery was chosen to open a new restaurant at

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

. In November 2012, the Campanile Restaurant and the adjoining original flagship La Brea Bakery retail store closed. In January 2013, a new La Brea Bakery and Cafe opened one block away, in a converted florist's shop. In 2014, for the company's 25th anniversary, the logo and packaging was redesigned. The burgundy logo with a capital "B" was replaced by a lowercase "b" on a bright red background. The flagship location also underwent a design renovation.

Footnotes

External links

Official website
*http://aspirebakeries.com {{Authority control Restaurants in Los Angeles Bakeries of California Bakery cafés Restaurants established in 1989

History

See also

Footnotes

External links