A bakery near Santa Monica Airport gives people a reason to line up without a boarding pass. Matilda’s, which opened in early October, pairs French baking traditions with a broader American ingredient list, serving croissants, baguettes, savory pastries, and an eight-option butter menu. The new arrival occupies a restored 1940s administrative building at 3200 Airport Avenue. Its approach is summed up in a phrase reported by the Beverly Press: “a California bakery with an accent.”
The early response has been substantial. Eater Los Angeles reported on October 13 that Matilda’s was selling more than 3,000 pastries weekly and had experienced lines lasting 45 minutes. “I am still processing it, to be honest,” founding baker François Pied told the publication. “I was not expecting this level of commitment from people to stand in line.” Those figures describe the bakery’s opening weeks, not a guaranteed wait or a prediction that every pastry will sell out before your arrival.
A California Address, a French Foundation and Four Days of Work
Owner and restaurateur Sean Martin took over the building in 2022 and named the bakery after his daughter. He recruited Pied, who brought an advertising background before transitioning into baking. Pied then tapped Abel Pulsifer as lead baker; the two had met at Los Angeles bakery Bub and Grandma’s. Pulsifer’s experience includes Brooklyn’s Radio Bakery, while Pied trained at École Lenôtre in Paris and worked at bakeries in France and the United States.
For Pied, opening Matilda’s was not a quick leap from one career to another. “I came into this project two and a half years ago,” he told Eater. He said the process confirmed that he wanted to bake professionally and gave him time “to properly get serious about it and be credible in front of a team of bakers.” That background helps explain why the opening story focuses as much on a developing craft as on an attractive new café.
The bakery’s signature process is decidedly unhurried. Its website describes pastries as hand-laminated in small batches, with four days between mixing and the counter. The bakery mixes, folds, and rests the dough overnight; lamination follows the next day, then rolling and another rest before baking. Eater reports that the pastry dough ferments for at least 18 hours, with the longer production cycle used for croissants, including butter, almond, ham-and-cheese, and pain au chocolat. The wait begins in the kitchen, well before anyone joins the queue.
That combination of traditional technique and regional sourcing deserves a precise description. Matilda’s says it uses organic ancient grains from Arizona alongside imported French flour, rather than claiming everything comes from California. Its listed suppliers include Hayden Flour Mills, French butter producer Échiré, chocolate maker TCHO, Caffè Luxxe, Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes, and Clover Sonoma dairy. The bakery’s California identity comes from its setting and mix of influences, not an all-local ingredient policy.
The Menu Goes Beyond a Croissant and Coffee
The croissant lineup provides familiar entry points, but the savory selections give the pastry case another direction. Eater describes a seasonal Danish inspired by shakshuka, featuring a béchamel-and-pepper base with jammy eggs. Other offerings include sausage rolls, chocolate chip cookies, brioche and sandwiches filled with ham and Comté. That range makes Matilda’s more than a stop for one sweet pastry, although the published reports do not establish that every item will be available throughout every service.
Bread has its own distinct point of view. Pied, born near Brittany and raised near Bordeaux, told Eater he wanted the baguette to reflect qualities he associated with both regions. “There is a wholesomeness to Brittany’s culinary approach,” he said, contrasting its earthy character with Bordeaux’s greater delicacy. The Beverly Press reports that the baguette uses organic French Label Rouge flour, fresh yeast, and sea salt from Brittany, a more traditional formula alongside the bakery’s broader grain experiments.
Then there is the butter, which gets more attention here than a foil-wrapped square on the side of a plate. Eater reports eight butter options that can be paired with bread, including Paysan Breton with hand-harvested Guérande salt, Échiré and tangy Pepe Saya. Goat butter also appears, along with a plant-based option made using coconut oil, rapeseed oil and fermented cashew. Think of it as a chance to compare different spreads, not evidence that every butter is French or locally produced.
The coffee connection stays closer to home. Matilda sources beans from Caffè Luxxe, which the bakery says roasts them just a few miles away; the partnership also includes staff training, according to the Beverly Press. Eater reports that the menu includes both coffee and matcha drinks. Alongside the imported flour and butter, that local collaboration makes the bakery’s “accent” description feel concrete: different suppliers and traditions meet at the same counter rather than being forced into one origin story.
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What to Know Before Making a Pastry Run
The setting gives customers somewhere to linger after ordering. Eater describes an airy, 1,800-square-foot dining room and an additional 1,000-square-foot outdoor terrace, creating indoor and outdoor seating rather than a takeaway-only window. The restored airport building is another distinguishing feature, but the address is in Santa Monica, not within the City of Los Angeles itself. For anyone planning a visit, use 3200 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, rather than treating “L.A. bakery” as a precise neighborhood description.
Opening hours require careful checking. Eater’s October 13 report lists Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., while the bakery’s own website currently displays “This week’s schedule” as Thursday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon. Because those schedules differ, confirm the latest hours before you go. The appeal is clear enough without a blanket “worth the wait” verdict: carefully developed pastries, a distinctive bread program and butter given its own moment in the spotlight, but an opening-week line is not a reservation.
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