More downtown bakery news: Urth Caffé’s grand opening

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The $5.2-million Urth Caffé and headquarters at Kor Group‘s Barker Block downtown soft-opened last week, and owners Shallom and Jilla Berkman plan to celebrate its grand opening Sunday.

Already the local loft-dwellers, artists and cops have been lining up for their espressos and tomato-basil quiche at what’s likely to be as popular with the arts district’s denizens as the Melrose location is with the WeHo crowd. (Kor Group founder Brad Korzen, a patron of the Melrose cafe, approached the Berkmans to open the Urth project across the street from his company’s Barker Block lofts. An as-yet-unannounced restaurant and market also is scheduled to open in the Barker building.)

The 14,000-square-foot Urth headquarters, formerly an egg factory, features indoor and outdoor seating and a window onto the cafe’s Probat coffee roaster inside the commissary kitchen. (Most of the 1,200 pounds of organic coffee that is roasted every week still will be roasted at the company’s Northern California facility, says roaster Jan Eno, pictured.) Tastings and coffee-roasting classes are planned.

The kitchen is outfitted with a tea room (where teas are hand-blended), proofers (for the croissants), industrial mixers, enough stoves to bear several several-gallon pots of soup at once, a smoker, grills, and two sets of deck ovens, where the tomatoes for the tomato-basil quiche are roasted for 12 hours and where chef Sal Caldarone has started testing bread recipes. Another cafe is in the works -- in Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard -- set to open next year, says Jilla Berkman.

As for the downtown grand opening, according to the Barker Block website: ‘Celebrity investors and city officials are among the invited guests who will enjoy musical entertainment, keynote speakers and Urth Caffé delectables while touring the eco-conscious, classic brick renovation featuring recycled materials including original buttresses and tiles painted by local artists.’

Of course, ‘Entourage’ cast members also have been invited.

Urth Caffé downtown, 451 S. Hewitt St., (213) 797-4534. Sunday’s grand opening, noon to 7 p.m. (For other locations, see www.urthcaffe.com.)

-- Betty Hallock

Photos by Betty Hallock