{"id":7789,"date":"2019-08-17T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000001549"},"modified":"2019-08-16T20:25:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T03:25:49","slug":"local-bread-maker-brings-a-slice-of-long-beach-to-san-pedro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/local-bread-maker-brings-a-slice-of-long-beach-to-san-pedro","title":{"rendered":"Local bread maker brings a slice of Long Beach to San Pedro"},"content":{"rendered":"

For local bread maker Kristin Colazas Rodriguez, opening her first brick and mortar bakery in San Pedro is about taking full ownership of her craft; bringing a slice of what is becoming the more-saturated-every-day craft coffee and baked goods scene in Long Beach to a neighborhood that might not roll its eyes at the addition of a new, progressive bakery. Actually, they’ve welcomed it with open arms.<\/p>\n

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Newly opened Colossus Bread bakery at 2311 S. Alma St., San Pedro, CA. Thursday, Aug. 15. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nestled among small, single-family homes and surrounded by schools, Rodriguez\u2019 quaint hallway of a storefront and kitchen, Colossus Bread, churns out vegan-friendly focaccia flatbreads topped with moisture-rich tomato and zucchini slices, fresh sourdough loaves made similarly to the Tartine method\u2014with more hydration and a longer fermentation process learned from her years baking in San Francisco\u2014at one point as a pastry chef for the critically lauded Petit Crenn\u2014succulent strawberry and peach galettes, Danish poppy-seed pastries called Tebirkes and croissants, lots of chocolatey, flakey, and ham and cheesy croissants, take your pick.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019ll have to show up early if you want a taste of these artisan carbs. In the first four days after opening, Rodriguez sold out of pastries by 8 a.m. (she opens at 6 a.m.). If not the parents dropping their kids off at the nearby schools, stopping by for a latte and a brioche bostock, it\u2019s her loyal following in Long Beach making the drive across the Vincent Thomas Bridge to buy entire boxes of her fruit and vegetable-forward baked goods.<\/p>\n

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Nick Rodriguez (left) and Colossus Bread owner Kristin Colazas Rodriguez stand in front of her new bakery in San Pedro. Thursday, Aug. 15. Photo by Asia Morris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rodriguez\u2019 husband, Nick, who formerly managed Long Beach-based Steelhead Coffee\u2019s growing fleet of shops and was one of the first baristas to work at Rose Park Roaster\u2019s original location on Fourth Street, runs the beverage program using beans from Portland-based Heart Roasters, an outfit known for ensuring fair pay for its workers and transparency in operations, and um, the coffee is really, really good.<\/p>\n

While Rodriguez plans to maintain her presence at local farmer\u2019s markets, including Sundays in the Marina, some were disappointed to see her make a stake on a sleepy San Pedro block with no street sweeping, versus taking on an investor and building out a space in Long Beach. One reason she chose the former was to keep complete ownership of the business, allowing her the ability to create a sustainable work culture, one differing from the more cut-throat circumstances she experienced in San Francisco\u2019s culinary world.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/this-bakers-fermentation-fascination-is-feeding-long-beach-one-loaf-at-a-time\/<\/p>\n

With a background in community organizing\u2014she once worked for a women\u2019s services center on Skid Row before deciding to pursue pastry-making\u2014it\u2019s no wonder she\u2019s already planning on getting together a \u201cclean team\u201d (to make up for not having the aforementioned street sweeping) in agreement with a longtime resident who introduced herself to Rodriguez as the \u201cneighborhood watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also quickly developed an amicable relationship with artisan chorizo maker The Chori-Man<\/a> next door; both businesses are certainly a destination for anyone outside of the neighborhood, but the two have developed an alliance of sorts that involves much more than their shared wall. The two entities go hand-in-hand, truly, and they often promote each other. It\u2019s symbiotic, really, as in if the pastries sell out, which they will, one can always order a breakfast burrito to go with their coffee.<\/p>\n

Follow Colossus Bread on Instagram <\/i>@colossusbread<\/i><\/a> for drool-inducing pastry photos (and more info). The bakery and coffee shop is open Wednesday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday, Sunday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2311 S. Alma St., San Pedro, CA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ll have to show up early if you want a taste of these artisan carbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":70454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[510],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2744],"class_list":["post-7789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-breakfast","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7789"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=7789"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}