The Man Making LA’s Most Popular Bread Doesn’t Consider Himself a Baker
Inside the restless mind of Bub & Grandma’s Andy Kadin
By the time I arrive at Bub & Grandma’s bakery production space around 10 a.m., the morning shift is winding down. Not that you’d know it — the flour-dusted staff is bright-eyed and cheerful, balletically shaping ball after ball of raw dough into oblong discs, while punishingly energetic techno music blasts from the sound system. When a manager turns it down to ask if anyone is willing to stay an extra hour to help fulfill an order, hands shoot up without hesitation. “I will!” says Mara Villalpando, the gregarious lead mixer. She has been at work since 3 a.m.
Pulling extra-long shifts is nothing new for owner Andy Kadin, 37, who started the company in 2014. Since then, Kadin has shepherded Bub & Grandma’s though a period of incredible growth, evolving today into a wholesale bakery that supplies 140-odd customers around the city, including many boldface names, with impeccable sourdoughs, ciabatta, focaccia, pizza dough, and more. But as the bakery confronts another inflection point — nearly doubling the size of its wholesale facility and preparing to open its first-ever retail storefront — Kadin is grappling with the consequences of success.
