Amy ScattergoodUpdate: FarmShop, Jeffrey Cerciello's restaurant and market in the Brentwood Country Mart, will finally open its doors this Friday, November 26th. It will be a very soft opening, with just the bakery open in the initial days, and the restaurant serving only coffee and pastries. Brunch will begin on the weekend of December 4th-5th, with breakfast and lunch to follow shortly thereafter, and family-style dinner service a bit after that. FarmShop will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday this week, and the weekend starting next weekend.
Turn the page for the menu, and the original post, published November 10th.
Cookies: Orange Marmalade Drop, Peanut Butter, Butterscotch Blondie, Chocolate Chunk and Chocolatey Chocolate Chunk. Muffins: Honey Bran, Lemon & Preserves, and Chocolate Banana Walnut. Cakes: Pumpkin Pecan, Almond Butter, and Carrot Mascarpone. Scones: Spiced Cranberry, Lemon Poppyseed and Herbed Goat Cheese. Buttermilk Biscuits. Viennoiserie: Butter Croissant, Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread, Pomegranate Pear Danish, Chocolate Hazelnut Danish and Leek & Prosciutto Danish.
Lunch Desserts: Pound Cake Panna Cotta Sandwich with Seasonal Fruit, Apple Date Crisp with Mascarpone Cream, Praline Pear Croissant Pudding with Warm Caramel Sauce, and Compressed Persimmon Salad with Pepitas & Black Walnut Sabayon. Packaged items: Orange Marmalade, Granola, Cookies, Caramelized Rice Krispy Treats, and Chocolate Ganache Sandwiches. Most pastries run about $3-4.
Original post:
It's been a long time coming, but chef Jeffrey Cerciello's FarmShop is finally set to open in the former City Bakery space at Brentwood Country Mart. Cerciello (Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, Ad Hoc) and his partner Michel Darmon (Bouchon, Per Se, Ad Hoc) are shooting for a soft opening on Monday, November 22nd, and a more formal opening, with a full breakfast and lunch, the first week of December.
“It's really super, super soft,” said Cerciello yesterday of the initial opening. “We've been too far delayed; we've got to get this open, even if we only open for coffee and pastries.” Cerciello, who was born in Torrance, grew up in Laguna, and whose mother and grandmother once owned a shop in Santa Monica, was culinary director of Thomas Keller's casual dining division before moving back to Los Angeles earlier this year to open his first restaurant.
FarmShop is an ambitious project: part restaurant, part market. The front of the space will have seats for about 50 — the banquettes are arriving today — and an open kitchen and bar. Further back will be a large market area, with rows of wines, a cheese counter, a deli and small butcher's counter, and a space for kitchenwares and fresh produce and dairy. “It'll be a place to come and get a quart of milk and a dozen eggs,” says Cerciello. Or get a bit of cheese and a baguette and sit outside in the outdoor market while your kids play.
Cerciello says that he basically gutted the place after Maury Rubin's City Bakery closed, taking up the floors to expose the concrete, now nicely polished, opening the ceilings to the old wooden beams from the original 1948 building (“it shows the character of the market; it speaks to the history”) and putting in more skylights to add to those already there. The restaurant will open before the market (which is scheduled for sometime early next year), but you'll be able to see the place as it unfolds: Cerciello and Darmon have installed a plexiglass wall, with windows both for grownups and kids, so that people can watch the work-in-progress.
“The community's been so amazing, it's important that we do this,” said Cerciello. The chef meant opening early, but the same thing could be said about the project as a whole, as the large space has been unoccupied for over a year. It's been a big hole, as it were, in the marketplace, and one that's about to be filled again, first with coffee (LAMILL) and croissants (all pastries and breads will be made in-house), then with a market-driven menu, then bottles of wine, salumi, cartons of milk and dozens of eggs. Bring an appetite, and a basket.
the FarmShop; Credit: A. Scattergood
the FarmShop; Credit: A. Scattergood
the FarmShop; Credit: A. Scattergood
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