December 31, 2017

Check out the Corn / rye Bread at Fred’s Bakery & Deli in Beverlywood

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beverlywood ’s Fred’s Bakery & Deli.

How did you end up in the restaurant business?
The end of World WII, family were destroyed, life was shattered. The new land offered a new beginning. New Hope. Fred was heading to America. Los Angeles. He wanted to introduce his baking knowledge as he had learned and practiced it in Germany. He found a place on Robertson Blvd., on the border of the Jewish neighborhood of Beverlywood. Here he would find his customers who would string around the block to get his rye bread (“This handmade, Jewish-style rye made the way my dad thought it should be,” Norm Langer from ‘Langer’s deli’ told Eater LA’s editor, Matthew Kang). They came for his challah bread for Shabbat, and for his water boiled bagels with cream cheese and lox.

The taste of childhood remembrance for many of the Eastern immigrants Jews reappeared on Robertson Blvd. They craved his Chocolate babka, French coffee cakes, and chocolate log. While Hamentaschen Jews could find mainly during the Purim Festival, at Fred’s they got it every day in a big size and four flavors. Many bakeries make Rugalach but none of them made it like Fred. He brought the original recipe and improved it.

His children were literally, born in the bakery. They breathed flour at night and inhaled the smell of the baked bread in the morning. Naturally, they took over after the untimely passing of their father in 1992.
They kept on going for another fifteen years and then sold it. The new owners were at odd with the tradition that made Fred’s bakery so unique. Not until 2015, when the new owners, Israelis who were born into the Jewish tradition and came from it took over and brought back Fred’s assistants who are the leading bakers now.

One of the owners Yaffa, is an incredible cake baker and cook. Her muffins, brownies, tiramisu, Burekas, are to die for. The other partner Avi, is taking care of the daily operation. They just finished remodeling and are soon to introduce the new concept of Bakery-bar which is a bakery-cafe’ boutique.

We’d love to learn more about the struggles you’ve had along the way.
Bakery business is not easy any way you turn it. We sell wholesale to restaurants, Temples, Assisted living homes, country clubs, and others. At the same time we run our retail front store. Getting both wholesale and retail customers is not an easy task and needs continuous effort and persistence. It takes long hours. The challenges are to keep smooth running operation on a budget, bringing back old customers and new ones.

Tell us something interesting or unique about Fred’s Bakery & Deli.
We are unique in our hard to find products and in a quality not often found like the Kalachkie, Babka, chocolate danish, Rugalach. Google search bring us up in the list in the best rye and challah bread categories. Our remodeling makes our bakery very welcoming. The light scheme is bright during the day and dimming during the evening and gives us control over the desired mood. We have an advanced sound system to add to the mood. While other make rye or challah or babka or rugalach, we have our own secret recipe that makes it different and better.