In the beginning, serious bread in San Diego County was mostly held up by two studs: Dudley’s (an icon in the rural outskirts baking date nut raisin bread and a drug-like jalapeño-cheddar since 1963) and Panchita’s (one of the OG modern Mexican bakeries, with lovely pan dulces, tres leches, and empanadas).
The next seismic shift happened when an indie horror film director attended the Cannes Film Festival. Bored and frustrated by the industry, Charles Kaufman ditched the arty premieres and convinced a local baker to teach him the bread arts. He opened Bread & Cie, San Diego’s first European-style, hard-crust bakery, in 1994 (the rosemary olive oil bread is legend).
Bread laid low for a bit until three stars emerged: Sadie Rose (sourdough, ciabatta, brioche), Con Pane (rosemary olive oil, gruyere and chive), and Prager Brothers (famed for milling its own grains, how gods and taste buds intended).
And, in 2025, San Diego bread culture is full-blown. Crystal White trained at the famed Tartine before opening Wayfarer Bread in Bird Rock (naturally fermented and organic sourdoughs, croissants, kouign-amanns, and a culty weekend pizza). Parfait Paris won the macaron game, then went beyond when it partnered with chef Malek Larbi, former exec pastry chef at a Michelin-starred spot in England, where he cooked for the queen. At Izola in East Village, a former Pulitzer- winning photog went all beautiful-mind engineering the perfect croissant. Fanatics followed.
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At the new Symphony Towers, the University Club brought us Knead, a long-overdue standalone from fantastic pastry chef Adrian Mendoza (ex-Herb & Wood, Wayfarer). And the upstart winning over top chefs is Companion Bread in City Heights, where baker Sienna Walters is milling her own California grains.
