LaMon Bakehouse Verified listing

For Monica Recio, the owner of the petite (but with punch) LaMon Bakehouse on Broadway near Temple Avenue, baking began long before she ever stepped into a professional kitchen.

LaMon Bakehouse isn’t just a bakery; it’s a culmination of a lifetime spent baking in the humid kitchens of the Philippines. Of working grueling hours in L.A.’s back kitchens while undocumented. Of the quiet sacrifices immigrant families make when they hand-mix dough in crumbling brick ovens and still have enough heart left over to take something on as their own.

“I want to tell people who say I don’t belong here or that I ‘didn’t do it the right way,'” Monica laments. “I want to tell them: ‘Let me show you how much I actually care for my community. The one here. Our community.'”

LaMon Bakehouse isn’t about flexing technique—though Monica’s got plenty. It’s about nostalgia. Warmth. A lack of pretense. The result? One of the city’s best desserts: an ube cheesecake that uses a crème brûlée topping as its send-off. Witty French riffs on classic Filipino sans rival—where a heavy cashew classic is reinterpreted with pistachio and raspberry.

“People ask why I don’t do the fine-dining thing, or why I don’t lean into the ‘bougie’ side of pastry,” she says. “But I’d rather have someone come here every week for something small and sweet than save up to buy one big cake a year.

“This space is me,” she says. “Colorful. A little chaotic. Full of heart.”

Can we get an amen?

Written and photos by Brian Addison.

For Brian Addison's full feature on LaMon Bakehouse, click here.