Post-City Bakery, Birdbath rises in West Hollywood

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Maury Rubin closed the L.A. outpost of City Bakery in Brentwood this spring but promised he would open a Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery in West Hollywood this year. And so it is. Rubin says he has signed a lease, and a Birdbath bakery -- the first outside of New York -- will open in the newly renovated Pavilions complex at Santa Monica and Robertson boulevards this fall.

‘It’s a small-scale [700-square-foot] takeout bakery with lunch to go and some unusual beverages,’ Rubin says. ‘The food and drink is organic or locally sourced or seasonal or all three.’

Expect the pretzel croissant plus cookies, muffins, scones and breakfast tartines. For lunch, small pizzas (including the ‘green pizza,’ which just made its debut on the High Line in New York) and pressed sandwiches. Vegan options include the sesame-banana-agave cake, pictured above. And the ‘unusual beverages’ refer to edible flower lemonade, the ‘Two-Tone’ (coffee & chocolate), ‘foamy’ organic orange juice and a new Birdbath hot chocolate.

Wait, there’s more: ‘some form of shaved ice and/or sorbets and/or frozen custards and/or dessert-like fruit soups,’ Rubin says. ‘Eco-themed’ pastries include the ‘What’s Your Carbon Footprint?’ cookie, ‘Save the Whale’s Tail’ turnovers and ‘Green Energy’ cookies (organic butter cookie with jalapeno peppers).

In New York, customers who arrive by bicycle or skateboard get a discount. Here, anyone who arrives in a hybrid vehicle will get a discount.

-- Betty Hallock