Erin McKenna’s Bakery
$$ Bakeries, Vegan, Gluten-Free
236 N Larchmont Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Apparently, they have enough time to flag an image I drew last year of my experience with one of their aloof workers (or non-experience since she never actually turned around) to get it deleted from Yelp yet not have time to say, “hey I’m sorry our shitty day-old vegan biscuit almost killed you. We will personally ensure that you don’t have to have conversations with the back of any of our aloof employees’ heads ever again.”
By the way, if their staff went on to bigger and better things since my last visit in mid-2013, good for them. I hear there are smug non-profits out there that hire people to teach people how to knit sweaters out of used grocery bags. Still not returning, but thanks for being bothered enough to flag a drawing posted over a year ago.
Useful: 5 Funny: 6 Cool: 2
10/8/2014
Previous review
I remember a skit in I Love Lucy when Lucy McGillicuddy bellows as a disgusted patron at Aunt Martha’s Homemade Salad Dressing for a television commercial skit that Ethel and Lucy were doing to dissuade customers from buying more of their popular salad dressing: “What’s Aunt Martha trying to do, poison me?!”
This is the exact scene and phrase that came into my mind after eating their day-old ‘vegan butter’ biscuit with a stale bagel they offer at a discount price (which is actually still more than the price of a warm bagel you can get next door).
What’s BabyCakes trying to do?!
If I was more punk and dumpster diving, I would need to be so hard-pressed and hungry for food to eat this thing for free. This biscuit was so disgusting that somehow (whether as a direct result of this place or not) I got the stomach flu a few hours later that day and whenever I burped, it left the aftertaste of this damn biscuit. It was stale but held a buttery popcorn taste of oil that may have kept it lubricated and in one piece before crumbling in my mouth like a massive Ortega Highway rock slide.
But to be fair, I’ve had vegan cupcakes and/or a cookie in the past that wasn’t so stale-tasting or bad either. Although nothing tastes fresh-out-of-the-oven warm, their prices beg for otherwise and point to that kitchen in the back of the store that is interestingly never being used, at least when I visit.
“Expensive rice flour dude”, said one of their aloof employees. All of their employees I have encountered here are uniformly unfriendly, as if some social dynamic in this tiny space begs for employees to be mean vegans. Maybe it’s in the size of the space that makes them unfriendly. The time before, some artsy woman who appears as if she can’t wait to quit this stupid bakery gig to start her own knitting boutique is trying desperately not to engage with me as I looked at the scant selection of goods in the display in front of her. After four minutes, I decided not to ask the back of her head, which was two feet away from my face, about a cupcake I saw. I should have blown wind to her head to demand her attention.
Perhaps it is in the rice flour or non-GMO oils why these creations never taste exactly fresh, but I must point fault to things that are well-intentioned, pricey yet still taste like gluten-free geology. Read less
Useful: 6 Funny: 12 Cool: 2
10/1/2013
Comment from Erin M. of Erin McKenna’s Bakery
Hi Chris! We just read your most recent review and found your older review (We’ve never flagged a review, so are not even certain how that process works. We’re sorry if a picture you drew was taken down). We’re so sorry you had a bad experience. We will remind our employees that customers shouldn’t have to talk to the back of their heads! It just isn’t right and we’re sorry that you had that kind of reception.
10/20/2014