Baked Goods

Every town should have a good bakery, especially a walking town like the Claremont Village. St. Honoré Boulangerie in Portland's Northwest district fills that bill, as does Nancy Silverton's La Brea Bakery on La Brea near 6th St. in LA.

Full of Life bakery used to fill that niche with its cranberry walnut loaves, chewy, slightly sweet, pale-crusted baguettes and its fabulous cheese counter. Wandering around the Claremont Farmers Market on a Sunday morning, you could pick up a fresh loaf, and feel very European, walking home baguette in hand with your sack of new potatoes and turnips and organic apples and throw a nice supper together.

But Full of Life changed owners a year or so ago, and the quality of the bread declined sharply. The cheese counter seems to have pretty much disappeared, and the restaurant is now more like the average sandwich shop.

Claremont's languished ever since.

But have no fears. Help is on the way (no, not Bill Clinton's Sunday visit). Le Pain Quotidien, a bakery that got its start in Brussels in 1990, is coming to Village West. The Student Life had a mention of the Le Pain in Beverly Hills, so you might sample some of the goods there if you're out that way. Soon you won't have to go far.