The practice of alternative bread and pastry baking is thriving in California. Responding to the trend, Breadblok, the gluten-free bakery established by Chloé Charlier, recently opened a new brick-and-mortar outpost in Santa Monica. After gaining fans at local farmers markets by selling from her Commune-designed stand, she wanted her new location on Montana Avenue to evoke a California style with Provençal influences. The AD100 firm responded to the task by creating a comfortable neighborhood café with a light, airy feel that reflects the organic texture of Breadblok’s baked goods. While the bakery is currently only offering takeout due to COVID-19, the café is looking forward to reopening fully after the restrictions are lifted. AD PRO caught up with Commune’s Roman Alonso to hear about the project’s backstory and inspiration.
AD PRO: Before the store opened, Commune had designed Breadblok’s stands for farmers markets in the area. Did those early collaborations go on to influence this space?
Roman Alonso: Chloé asked us to develop a concept for a brick-and-mortar store before she had found a space. After months of searching for the right location with no success, Chloé decided to launch the brand in L.A. farmers markets. At that point, we translated our store concept into a portable structure. Like the café, we wanted the stand to have thoughtful, handmade elements that reference craft traditions. The tonal plaster treatment on the café walls became the inspiration for a canvas and linen patchwork tablecloth by Adam Pogue. We had always planned to have Dax Savage’s woven pendants in the café, so it was only natural for him to also make the display baskets for the market stand.
The stand was a great opportunity to bring these artisans into the project early on. Once we were ready to start work on the Santa Monica location, they were already fully part of the Breadblok team. We also used the stand as an opportunity to fine-tune the proportions of the shelves and pastry cases. When we were finally ready to design the millwork for the store, we were already very familiar with Chloé’s range of products and how best to display them.
AD PRO: What kind of feeling and atmosphere were you trying to establish?
RA: We wanted the design to convey quality, authenticity, and a sense of place. We selected materials that can be left in their raw state and will age beautifully: warm alder wood for shelves and millwork, Saltillo tile floors, plaster walls, and textured limestone counters. They’re equal parts Southern California and Chloé’s native Provence. The materials are timeless but the details are modern. The counter floats on stone plinths and the plaster walls are treated with a patchwork of tonal limewash.
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AD PRO: How did you go about referencing blocks without being too literal?
RA: Blocks are really the dream reference, because they can be iterated in so many different ways. Chloé built this company block by block herself, plus the bread of course, and the name quite literally. So we knew that there had to be a measure of “blocking” in the physical manifestation of Breadblok.
We took it literally in certain situations, as with the large blocks of stone seeming to balance just so as they form the long central counter, the blocks of letters making up the menu board, or even with the custom walnut blocks we had made for Chloé to display her bread. But we also decided to incorporate the theme in more subtle ways, to remind you of the care that goes into everything Breadblok does without having to scream it out loud. This is exemplified in Brian Robles’s subtle plasterwork. You could miss it if you don’t pause and catch the right light, but it’s always there. We love that.
Name: Breadblok
Design team: Commune Design (Roman Alonso, Alba Kane, Ashley Takacs), Jennifer Yano (AOR), FE Design (Kitchen Consultant), Lam & Ka’ainoni Engineering Corp (MEP), Ocean Construction (Contractor)
Size: 1,100 square feet
Location: Santa Monica, California
Timeline: “We started working on the concept in the spring of 2017. We began the Santa Monica location design in May of 2018, construction was completed in December of 2019, and the store opened in February of 2020.”
Biggest ticket item: “The almost-floating limestone counter.”
An idea you almost went with: “In an earlier iteration of the design, we had riser-style benches along one wall. We wanted to maximize the number of seats in the long narrow space.”
Most interesting thing you had on the project mood board: “Photos of Luis Barragán’s house in Mexico City.”
