Photos by Trevor Roberson
I recently got a chance to sit down with Justina Fenton, one of the founders of Shortnin Bread Artisian Bakery and Creamery, for a discussion of where she and all of her baked and frozen goodies came from. It started with a great cup of coffee — locally roasted by True Beans, all organic, and they aren’t joking when on their cups they say “That unique flavor is called great coffee” — at a table on the corner of 3rd and Elm St in downtown Long Beach.
Justina, a fifth generation Californian and third generation Angelino, grew up all over the Los Angeles basin. She graduated from St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs in ’93 and then started the fantastic journey that brought her to owning her dream shop in Long Beach. After high school, she stepped out into the world and took a job as an admin at a commodes firm located in Orange County. Not really liking the cubical lifestyle, Justina made a decision that it was time for a change and this left only two paths: hair dresser or chef. She kept looking back at her childhood, all the great food that she learned to make with her Midwest grandmother flooding her head. After all, Grandma taught her granddaughter how to can, preserve, bake, and prepare hearty, American fare. That’s when in February of 2000, she decided that she wanted to work in the culinary arts and moved to San Francisco to attend The California Culinary Academy. While there, she studied baking and pastry making, one of the more precise specialties offered by the Academy– and, as the story goes, fell in love.
Upon graduation she took a position at the well-known fine dining and Michelin Starred The Fifth Floor in San Francisco. She worked as the pastry chef for almost a year before accepting a position as the Pastry Chef of a little place called The French Tea Company back in Long Beach. While at the Tea Company, she also worked part time with Let Them Eat Cake, the acclaimed bakery of Christopher Garren. After two years the French Tea Company folded, Justina took a full-time position at Let Them Eat Cake. During this year she honed her skills and reputation, and was offered the Head Pastry Chef position at the prestigious Center Club in Costa Mesa, where she grew some roots and thrived for three years.
After three years at the Center Club, Justina decided that it was time for a break. She quit her job and adventured around for the better part of one and a half years. When she was ready to come back to work she took a part time job at Tracht’s, the Long Beach location of Chef Suzanne Tracht’s American Chophouse at the Renaissance Hotel, furthering her art from 2007 to 2009.
In 2009, Justina decided that it was time to step out and take a chance. She rented kitchen space and started to sell her baked goods at local farmers markets and community events. As she built her reputation for being a phenomenal pastry chef, the overwhelming question was “Where is your shop?” After hearing this question repeatedly, she found an investor (her uncle, Keith Russell) and picked out a spot to setup shop, Shortnin Bread opened its doors on the corner of 3rd and Elm in October of last year. It is here where she makes all kinds of delicious goodies, with the driving force of the simple mantra, “It all comes down to good food.” They serve their own cookies, brownies, bars, tarts, pies, and homemade ice cream — all made to the highest quality and with locally sourced ingredients. She avoids artificials, be it coloring or flavoring or sweetener, and she keeps it simple with whole milk, unsalted butter, flour of the highest quality grain, and ingredients that are sometimes from just a county or city over.
Justina’s Shortnin Bread is, simply and truly, an awesome establishment. With the understanding that “We all deserve to eat better,” the quality of this bakery is unsurpassed. I have tried a few different items off the menu and I have to say that the Chocolate Salted Carmel Tart is one of the best sweets that I have ever indulged in: a perfectly buttery tart crust filled with salted caramel (the saltiness, Justina explains, balances the sweetness — doesn’t make the dessert itself sodium-filled) and topped with perfect lining of chocolate. With future plans of a bread co-op (and maybe a Southern-style restaurant), things are only going to get better from here. Next time you are downtown, stop by Shortnin Bread and say hello to Justina and her crew of friends and family — you will not be disappointed.
