Bakeries in Los Angeles

Los Angeles has no single dominant baking tradition. The city's bakeries draw on Mexican, Cuban, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Jewish, and American styles, often mixing them. The result is a bakery scene shaped more by immigration patterns and neighborhood identity than by any one school of breadmaking.

Historic bakeries

Phoenix Bakery, the oldest continuously operating bakery in Los Angeles, was founded in 1938 by Fung Chow Chan and Wai Hing Chan in Chinatown.¹ Racist lending laws at the time prevented Chinese immigrants from obtaining bank loans, so F.C. Chan financed the business through community networks.² The bakery's logo, a boy hiding a pastry box behind his back, was drawn in the 1940s by Tyrus Wong, the artist who later painted Chinatown's Central Plaza dragon mural.¹ In the 1970s, head baker Lun F. Chan developed the Phoenix cake, a strawberry whipped cream cake that became a fixture at birthdays across the city.¹ The bakery remains family-owned and is now operated by the third generation of the Chan family.²

Bea's Bakery in Tarzana has operated since 1968, producing Jewish bakery staples like black and white cookies, apple strudel, babka, and challah.³ The shop sits next to Mort's Deli and has expanded its range to include ube rugelach and gluten-free hamantaschen.³

Porto's Bakery opened in 1976 on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.⁴ Founder Rosa Porto emigrated from Cuba with her husband Raul Sr. and began baking cakes for friends using recipes from her family in Galicia, Spain.⁵ Her Cheese Rolls, Refugiados (guava and cheese strudels), and Potato Balls became signatures.⁵ Rosa Porto died in 2019; her three children and grandchildren now run the business.⁵ Porto's has expanded to six locations in Glendale, Burbank, Downey, Buena Park, West Covina, and Northridge, with a seventh planned for the Downtown Disney District.⁵ The bakery took the top spot on Yelp's "Top 100 Places to Eat in the US" list, and the Los Angeles Times voted it Best Bakery in the Southland in 2021.⁵

The artisan bread movement

Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel opened La Brea Bakery in January 1989 at 624 S La Brea Avenue, originally to supply bread for their restaurant Campanile.⁶ By 1998, the bakery had raised $10 million for a production plant in Van Nuys and became the largest artisanal bakery in the United States, using par-baked frozen dough to distribute bread to supermarkets across Southern California.⁶ The original retail store closed in 2012 alongside Campanile, and a replacement café one block away operated until January 2023.⁶

The building at 624 S La Brea Avenue is now home to République, an all-day French-Californian restaurant opened by chefs Walter and Margarita Manzke.⁷ Margarita Manzke, a James Beard Award-winning pastry chef, oversees a pastry case stocked daily with Basque cheesecakes, chocolate tarts, pain au chocolat, and crème brûlée bombolini.⁷ Items are not replenished once they sell out.⁷

Proof Bakery, a worker-owned bakery in Atwater Village, draws weekend crowds for its croissants, brioche toast, and sandwiches served on house-baked mini baguettes.⁷ Bub and Grandma's in Glassell Park, started in 2015 by baker Andy Kadin (a Gjusta alum), supplies bread to several LA restaurants and runs a sandwich shop with items like the Rainbow, a vegan sandwich with curried tofu, pickled vegetables, avocado, and tahini spread.⁸

French and European-style bakeries

Gjusta in Venice, opened by Faye and Travis Lett, produces bialys, bagels, sourdough loaves, and baguettes alongside a full food menu.⁸ Its ham and Gruyère croissant is a frequently cited standout.⁸ Several bakers who trained at Gjusta went on to open their own shops.³

Petitgrain Boulangerie in Santa Monica, opened by baking instructor Clémence de Lutz and chef Tony Hernandez, operates from a 1,000-square-foot space.³ The bakery uses locally sourced flour and French butter; its pastries often sell out before 10 a.m., though a second batch is stocked around 2 p.m.⁸

Clark Street Bakery, founded by Zack Hall, started inside Grand Central Market and has expanded to locations in Echo Park, Larchmont, Brentwood, and Beverly Hills, plus a diner in Hollywood.³ Its Swedish cardamom bun is a signature item.³

Fondry in Eagle Rock produces laminated pastries, with its kouign-amann drawing long lines before opening.⁸

Mexican bakeries

Pan Estilo Copala in Compton is a family-owned, Guerrero-style bakery that ferments wheat dough and shapes pan dulce by hand.⁸ Products include gusanitos (sugar-coated pastries) and empanadas stuffed with purple yam, served alongside self-serve café de olla.⁸

Santa Canela in Highland Park is run by the pastry chef from the restaurant Loreto.⁸ It produces conchas filled with vanilla chantilly, strawberry-chile donuts, "LA"-shaped churros, and focaccia sandwiches.⁸

Asian and Asian-fusion bakeries

Phoenix Bakery continues to produce traditional Chinese pastries including moon cakes made with decades-old wooden molds and imported duck eggs, alongside wintermelon cakes and almond cookies.¹

Cream Pan in Lomita is a French-Japanese bakery specializing in custard-filled pastries, melon buns, and strawberry croissants filled with sweet cream.⁸ The shop also carries house-baked milk bread and a café menu with onigiri, curry buns, and pork katsu plates.⁸

Modu Cafe in Highland Park produces Korean-influenced pastries: lime tarts with sugar-crystallized perilla leaves, kabocha cakes decorated with dried persimmon, and black sesame chocolate cookies.⁸ The shop enforces a four-pastry-per-person limit.⁸

Hi Bake, a chain from China, opened its first U.S. location in Beverly Hills.⁸ Its pastries include pistachio spirals with a mirror-like finish and blueberry egg tarts with wavy edges.⁸

Cuban bakeries

Beyond Porto's, Café Tropical on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake has operated for roughly 50 years.⁸ The bakery still serves cubano sandwiches and pastelitos filled with cheese and guava paste, alongside newer items like a BEC on coco bread and orange-glazed donuts.⁸

Other notable bakeries

Fat + Flour, run by cookbook author Nicole Rucker in Culver City and Grand Central Market, is known for key lime pie and seasonal produce-driven baked goods.⁷ Proof Bakery and Fat + Flour both use bread from Jyan Isaac Bread, a Santa Monica bakery opened by Jyan Isaac Horwitz, who started baking professionally at age 19 after working at Gjusta.³

Helms Bakery in Culver City originally operated from 1931 to 1969 as an industrial bakery; a loaf of Helms bread was included on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.⁹ Chef Sang Yoon reopened the space in November 2024 as a daytime café and bakery, but the new iteration closed in December 2025.⁹