Red Bread

Is there anything Rose Lawrence can't do?

Between baking organic pastries, canning locally sourced jams and pickles, and delivering weekly loaves of fresh-baked bread via bicycle, the owner of Red Bread is on a personal mission to transform Westside pantries.

Lawrence and her husband, David, have long held a presence at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market, where they sell out almost every week. With their new brick-and-mortar bakery and café in Culver City, the couple hopes to spread the gospel of wholesome baked goods even further.

Gather a few friends for breakfast to enjoy the café's tea service for four ($50), which includes a wide selection of the day's pastries and sandwiches: cracked oatmeal cookies studded with TCHO chocolate ($2), fig-filled "jammy newtons" ($2), soft Montreal-style bagels ($3), French toast challah ($3), and soft sourdough tartines topped with house-cured gravlax or bacon ($7).

Don't leave without trying the old-world Russian black bread ($10), made from an intriguing mix of rye and whole-wheat flour, molasses, ground coffee, bitter chocolate and apple cider vinegar. The hearty, all-purpose bread, fermented with a natural leaven and dusted with fennel and caraway seeds, trumps every pumpernickel we've tasted.

Let us never be without a loaf again.