Who wouldn't stand in line for icy, creamy sea salt coffee paired with a slice of sea salt coffee brûlée?
Even if the line lasted an hour, or more?
That's the way it was this morning, when 85°C Bakery Cafe opened in Koreatown.
The line was a happy place. Some standees even got free coffee samples, until they ran out.
Once inside, shoppers received a bakery tote bag, tongs and a tray to heap with breads, buns, cookies and cakes.
And who wouldn't heap, when the total would cost so little, compared to other bakeries?
It's not like 85°C is a novelty. There's one downtown and more scattered around Southern California and one due to open in Santa Monica next year. But this is the first in central Los Angeles. And it's in a buzzy part of Koreatown, packed with restaurants, a market, a branch of the Korean bakery Paris Baguette and shops selling bingsu and other cool treats.
The company is Taiwanese, and its baked goods are Taiwanese, European and Japanese in style plus Danish and "other," a category that includes a ham and tuna sandwich.
Portuguese style egg tart is a big seller. A Hokkaido cheese tart is cheesy as in cheesecake. The Portuguese tart (dotted with brown) has a flaky crust, the Hokkaido tart, a cookie crust.
This tray includes the two tarts and a berrytale, which is filled with blueberries; milk pudding bread, a cranberry cream cheese bun, a boroh Danish, with a crunchy top that looks like a pineapple shell; walnut raisin multigrain bread, a chocolate chip bowl, and a chocolate cream bread.
The cake section (above) is glorious. There are savory snacks too, such as a Taiwanese cheese dog and garlic cheese bread.
But it's the sweets that catch the eye.
Each item is placed in its own bag rather than jumbled together so that they mash and crumble.
Teas, smoothies and espresso drinks are on tap, but the famous specialty is sea salt coffee or tea.
Now that opening day excitement is out of the way, the bakery will be open daily, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
85°C Bakery Cafe, 3377 Wilshire Blvd., #101, Los Angeles, CA 90010, which is at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Alexandria in Koreatown.
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