The virtues of Gusto Bread, Arturo Enciso’s in-home castle of carbs, has long been extolled by both myself and others. Our managing editor, Melissa Evans, joined Enciso at his home to learn how to bake a loaf. I talked with him and his partner Ana at length about how they came to be. And just this past weekend, getting some of his bready wonders earned Gusto a spot on my list of favorite things to eat during quarantine.
So it should come as no surprise that they’ve garnered attention outside of Long Beach, like landing on Eater LA’s Best Bakeries list.
But what might come as at least a bit surprising is getting national attention.
Food & Wine, the long-running cuisine magazine, has not only written about Gusto but has deemed it one of the nation’s best bakeries in their most recent listicle.
Here’s what the editors of Food & Wine had to say about the Long Beach bakery:
“If Arturo Enciso’s kouign amann, made wholly unique with the addition of house-milled blue corn masa to the naturally-leavened pastry dough, doesn’t have you pointing the car toward his two-story wood frame home near downtown Long Beach, everything else will—think polverones (made with California-grown walnuts, of course), spelt flour biscuits, and gorgeous fresh fruit galettes. Plus, of course, the bread—the drive may be long, but this might be our favorite baguette in Los Angeles right now.”
I second you on that baguette.