City Bakery’s Cousin to Come to Swarthmore

Palisadians, rev up your appetites because a new bakery and eatery, Birdbath, is opening on Swarthmore in early next year. Maury Rubin, who owns the City Bakery in New York City and in Brentwood, is coming to Pacific Palisades with many of his signature offerings such as Rubin’s chocolate (hot or cold), pretzel croissants, ‘Save the Polar Bear Claws’ (a type of turnover with apricot jam) and his ‘What’s Your Carbon Footprint?’ cookie (an organic butter cookie). ‘I love this street,’ Rubin said Tuesday at his storefront at 1017 Swarthmore (between Solis Salon and Paliskates). ‘I love that it is the Farmers’ Market street.’ The store will be called Birdbath, the name Ruben gave to two smaller bakeries he has opened in New York the past two years. In addition to pastries, the fare will include savory lunch foods, pressed sandwiches, soups, pizzas and salads, and a unique beverage menu. There will be limited seating. ‘It’s intended to be a personal, neighborhood, experience,’ Rubin said. ‘We’re also planning on being open past dinnertime for people who forgot to eat their cookies earlier in the day.’ The store space, owned by the Bowinkel Trust, has been vacant since Fernworks, an antique store, closed in November 2005. An upscale food shop, Picnic, was supposed to open in 2006, but never did. Rubin signed his lease in June, but has been busy with his New York Birdbaths: one in the East Village, another in the West Village. This week his entire focus has switched to the Palisades store. ‘It’s in our interest to open as soon as we can,’ Rubin said Monday as workers began tackling the plumbing. The Swarthmore space is being designed to be eco-friendly, much like Rubin’s two other Birdbaths. ‘Building them has been a hands-on process, and we’ve learned with each one,’ Rubin said. ‘The second is greener than the first. The third one in the Palisades will be greener than the second.’ The stores in New York both use wind power, and interior materials include used wallpaper made from 49 percent recycled polyester and cork floors manufactured from the waste created when cork tops are made for wine bottles. The inside of one counter is made from recycled natural fibers (primarily blue jeans), and the walls are painted with milk paint, which consists of 99 percent food grade ingredients. One of the walls is covered with Dakota burl, a product made from sunflower seed husks, which is how Birdbath got its name. The Swarthmore store will contain some of the same green elements, but with a difference. ‘We created geographic boundaries for procuring all primary building materials at each location,’ Rubin said. ‘The basic concept is to reduce energy consumption.’ Rubin plans to use construction materials within a 500-mile radius of the Palisades and food products obtained from California. Equally important, Rubin wants to use solar energy to run the bakery. If successful, it will be one of the first solar commercial bakeries in the nation. He was complimentary of his landlords, Paul and Vickie Bowinkel. ‘They have embraced this idea and we couldn’t do it without their willingness,’ he said. The New York Birdbaths have become popular sites for school trips. ‘We’d love to have the same role here,’ Rubin said. Richard Riordan’s new restaurant and deli are set to open on Swarthmore in early January and Rubin was asked if the closeness of the two eateries could produce a conflict. ‘I think it’s exciting. The street will be reinvigorated,’ he said. ‘We come from New York and there are 50 other food businesses within a few blocks of each other. For me, the more the better.’ Birdbath will feature a tiny seating area in the front of the store, a counter, another tiny seating area, and the baking space in the rear. ‘I would love it to be a place where people come after dinner and get some cookies or pick up something for breakfast the next morning,’ Rubin said. Rubin was a television director for ABC Sports in New York. In 1980, he went on an extended vacation in France and took a pastry course. Enthused, he returned home and decided he would one day open a bakery. The City Bakery opened in 1990 and the Los Angeles store opened in the Brentwood Country Mart in February 2006. ‘I’ve been in L.A. more than New York the past two years,’ Rubin said. ‘I’m in one of our bakeries every day of the week.’ Rubin’s ‘Book of Tarts,’ which received rave reviews from critics, as well as amateur bakers, was published in 1995.