Matilda's Sold 3,190 Pastries in Its First Week and Keeps Running Out

A bakery inside a 1940s airport administrative building sold 3,190 breads and pastries in its first week and has been running out ever since.

Matilda's is at 3200 Airport Avenue in Santa Monica, near the Mar Vista border. It is named for the daughter of owner Sean Martin, who also runs The Cloverfield up the road and the steakhouse Stiletto in this same building.

The Bakers Came From Bub And Grandma's

Martin owns it. Two bakers make it.

François Pied is the founding baker. He grew up in southern France, worked in advertising, and came back to cooking and baking during the pandemic with a home bakery he called Pour Toi. He trained at École Lenôtre in Paris and has worked in bakeries in France, Montana and Los Angeles.

Abel Pulsifer is the lead baker, from Gilbert, Arizona, by way of Radio Bakery in Brooklyn, Supermoon Bakehouse in Manhattan, Proof in Phoenix and FONDRY in Los Angeles.

The two met working at Bub and Grandma's, which is the thread worth pulling. Bub and Grandma's has become something like a finishing school for Los Angeles bread, and this is one of its branches.

Four Days From Mix To Counter

The team's phrase for what they do is “a California bakery with an accent,” and the accent is French with a California grain bill.

Every dough ferments at least 18 hours. Dough is mixed, folded and rested overnight, laminated the next day, then given a rolling day and another night before it is baked. Mix to counter runs about four days. Pastries are hand-laminated in small batches.

The grain is the part most bakeries would not bother with. Matilda's buys from Hayden Flour Mills in Arizona, including White Sonora Wheat, a variety dating to the 1600s that was revived with help from Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco. The croissants use imported French flour and butter alongside locally sourced whole grains. The baguette is organic Label Rouge flour, fresh yeast and sea salt from Brittany.

What To Order

• The butter tasting. Eight butters: Paysan Breton, Échiré, Bordier, La Conviette and Pamplie from France, Pepe Saya, Bella Capra goat butter from California and a plant-based Monty's. Mini baguettes arrive in a bag with several tasters.

• Croissants. Butter, almond, pain au chocolat, ham and cheese.

• The shakshuka danish. Flaky edges around a jammy egg in the middle. Seasonal.

• The Passion Guava Danish. Limited to two per person, which tells you how fast it goes.

• Sausage rolls. Locally raised pasture-raised pork in house-made puff pastry.

• Honey butter toast. Brioche with local honey.

• The chocolate chip cookie, roughly six inches across.

• Sandwiches. Ham with Comté and salted DOP butter. Turkey with Havarti, aioli, pickled onions and sprouts. Marinated zucchini with goat cheese, pine nuts, arugula sprouts and onion confit.

Coffee comes from Caffè Luxxe, roasted a few miles away, and Caffè Luxxe also handled sourcing and trained the staff. The almond milk is made in house.

Be Honest About The Line

This is the part to plan around. Los Angeles Magazine reported 45-minute lines in the opening stretch. Coverage dated October 18 cited two-hour waits. People queue before the doors open, and the bakery sells out.

Pied posted an apology on Instagram on October 12 for the sellouts. “Your weekend time matters,” he wrote, saying he did not want a visit to feel like a wasted morning. That is a more gracious response than most bakeries manage, and it does not change the fact that you should go early.

If You Go

• Matilda's, 3200 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405

• Hours: genuinely unresolved. Los Angeles Magazine reports Wednesday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon. What Now LA reports Wednesday to Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Infatuation says it opens at 8 a.m. The bakery publishes none on its own site.

• Ordering: no reservations. Online ordering is marked coming soon with no live link.

• Online: matildasbakery.com and @matildassantamonica on Instagram

• Parking: a lot behind the building

We are not going to print a single set of hours when four sources give three answers and the bakery gives none. Check Instagram the morning you go. The sellouts are the likeliest reason the published hours keep moving.

Sourcing

Ownership, the bakers' backgrounds, the 18-hour ferment and the White Sonora Wheat come from Beverly Press. The soft opening timeline, butter tasting, first-week volume, line lengths and the Instagram apology come from Los Angeles Magazine. The full item list and supplier detail come from Westside Today and from matildasbakery.com. Hours as reported come from those outlets individually and are presented as conflicting because they are. Checked October 25, 2026. Food Journal Magazine has not eaten at Matilda's.