When our founders Nancy Silverton, Mark Peel and Manfred Krankl created their renowned Los Angeles restaurant CAMPANILE, they found that one thing that was sorely lacking in this metropolis was great bread. Bread in the tradition of the country sides of Europe, handmade, crusty, flavorful, natural bread. Bread that could be eaten all on its own and be delicious and satisfying. They decided to change that, and on January 3rd, 1989 little LA BREA BAKERY was born.

Although bread was originally only sold over the bakery's makeshift retail counter and provided to our adjacent restaurant at 624 South La Brea Avenue, we soon began to supply notable restaurants and gourmet stores. Orso and DC-3 Restaurant, the world famous Hotel Bel-Air and Wally's Wine Shop are some of our earliest customers and still continue to use our breads today, after more than ten years.

Gaining tremendous recognition for the quality of our products, demand quickly outgrew the supply. Within less than two years we were unable to take on new accounts and our own retail store was often sold out within 3 hours of opening its doors.

In order to meet the continuously strong demand and to expand our distribution radius, a new, much larger bakery facility was opened in August of 1992 only a few miles from the original site. This new location allowed us to expand substantially and grow our DELIVERED DAILY line to its current capacity.

Today, we continue to deliver freshly baked bread 364 days a year (one day we'll rest) to over 700 restaurants, supermarkets and gourmet shops from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Our STORE BAKED line has evolved from a desire to bring delicious breads to customers that are located outside of the DELIVERED DAILY radius and to those who want the ultimate in freshness and quality. To achieve this we engaged in a lengthy and rigorous R & D project and developed an ambitious growth plan. A state-of-the-art artisan bakery was built in Van Nuys, California to focus entirely on the STORE BAKED process. Although STORE BAKED breads had been used by a handful of customers outside of our distribution network before the opening of this facility, we formally introduced this product line when we fired up the ovens at this new bakery in the spring of 1999.

Using the same high quality ingredients and techniques as our DELIVERED DAILY products, these STORE BAKED breads are 80% baked, then flash frozen and then shipped to retail stores and restaurants across the nation. There, the STORE BAKED goods are taken from the freezer and given a brief finishing bake on an as-needed basis. To the consumer this makes for the freshest and thus most delicious bread possible. Today, this STORE BAKED line of breads are happily used by quality conscious restaurateurs and retailers from New York to Hawaii.

From our modest 1989 beginnings in the little 1,200 square foot bakery, with only a handful of people, we have steadily grown and now employ some 400 artisans. It is worth noting that more than half of our terrific start-up employees are still with us now.

Although we are now considered the largest truly artisan bakery in the country, we have never strayed from our original goal of being committed to creating baked goods of uncompromising quality and authenticity.

This commitment is made by all four hundred of our artisans, led and encouraged by a group of individuals who have a longstanding history with, and live and breathe...