At Lodge Bread in Culver City, you can get your $9 avocado toast or $4.50 toast with nut butter or jam, but not on white bread. At this small bakery, white flour is eschewed in favor of organically grown grains, resulting in bread that has a heartier, deeper flavor. This is bread as how it’s meant to be.

For the same price as the avocado toast, you can score an entire loaf of bread. The loaves here are a bit darker on the outside, causing one to wonder if the bread has been overbaked, but fear not. The Ancient Grain loaf, a mixture of spelt and other grains, is a hearty bread with a nice chewy texture.  Even after a couple of days, the bread was still soft and fresh.

In addition to the loaves of bread, Lodge Bread offers a variety of baked goods from tea breads to scones and muffins and cookies. The zucchini bread, lightly studded with walnuts and a citrus glaze, was good but a little pricey at $5 a slice.

Their cinnamon roll at $6 was huge – 6 inches in length – and could easily feed four people. It was a bit more bready and dense than a typical cinnamon roll, crowned with a light whipped topping with orange zest. Not my favorite, but a good value for the price.

There’s also a chocolate chip cookie with miso that gives it a subtly different taste. It’s a good cookie, large and soft in the middle with huge pieces of high-quality chocolate in the middle.

Gluten-free diners are out of luck here, but if one is merely avoiding carbs and does not have celiac disease, Lodge Bread is well worth the splurge.

Location – 11918 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, 90066
Website – http://www.lodgebread.com
Kid-Friendly – Yes
Kid’s Menu – No
Vegetarian/Vegan Friendly – Yes
Gluten-Free Options – No