La Brea Ave at Fourth is finally coming out of the construction doldrums.
Bay Breads LLC will be opening a restaurant/bakery in the new retail structure that has risen on the corner of La Brea and Fourth Streets. It will be the  first Los Angeles location of La Boulange, known in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1996 for its artisanal pastries. The new bakery restaurant is expected to serve pastries and sandwiches along with beer and wine (pending the license approval.) La Boulange was purchased by Starbucks in June of 2012 and La Boulange pastries have been sold in Starbucks across LA (think classic tiny-loaf coffee cake, almond croissant, blueberry scone) for the past year. Bay Breads/La Boulange is expected to open in late spring 2014.
The Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) on La Brea was quick to rise and slow to finish, but is expected to open its doors for business February 3rd, 2014. While residents behind the store have complained that the construction site has been a  “24 hour/day annoyance”, many others are ready to see the business finally open with the shelves stocked, windows lit and the (meager) landscaping watered.
While it’s nice to have windows at street level, it’s too bad OSH corporate couldn’t come up with something more interesting than the big-box architectural style so prevalent in America’s malls, for the La Brea Ave streetscape which is evolving into an interesting mecca for dining and shopping.
A salesclerk at Liz’s Antique Hardware, just to the south of the new OSH, told the Buzz they are excited to have the OSH open soon as people are often stopping in at Liz’s looking for a hammer and nails – which they don’t sell in their speciality vintage hardware shop. OSH will offer parking onsite, as well as a small outdoor garden center. Our earlier Buzz story gives more details on the OSH.
Next up: the skinny fortress rising at 600 S La Brea and the opening of a full restaurant at LaBrea Bakery in the end of January. Stay tuned.
The La Boulange building is nice! Almost complete, it seems. This place looks like more than just a bakery (which is good, La Brea already has plenty of those.) It looks more like a full restaurant. The signage is up (“Hiring – Opening this Summer”) and there are big letters that say “Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.” The web address is http://laboulangeallday.com — which is different from La Boulange’s Bakeries (http://laboulangebakery.com)
I’m looking forward to checking it out.