On a windswept rainy Sunday morning, my girlfriend and I made our way through a NorCal winter squall towards the promise of hot coffee and warm pastries. The rain and wind pelted relentlessly until a timely bus picked us up and deposited us at the doorstep of Devil's Teeth Baking Company.
In spite of the tempest, the small storefront was nonetheless pretty lively. Patrons filled the sparse counter spaces, or stood tucked away in nooks and crannies, sipping steaming cups of coffee or nibbling away at hot breakfast sandwiches and fresh pastries.
It's a simple establishment. A long display case stuffed with many offerings divides an open kitchen from the retail floor. The dark walls and close quarters made me feel like I was in the belly of a New Orleans bar, or a repurposed pirate ship, redirected from high seas robbery to the production of sugary sweets.
The Captain behind the counter, named Hope, greeted us with authentic warmth and took our name and order with genuine kindness and patience as we scrambled to take in the many delicious sights and options of the display case and overhead menu, and distill an order.
We decided on two breakfast sandwiches (one regular and one Special), a beignet, a Cinnamon Roll, a slice of carrot cake, and a hot coffee. The Special Breakfast Sandwich includes avocado and aioli in addition to the usual fixings; and the bakery serves $1 beignets on Sundays only!
Cradling our boxed Cinnamon Roll and slice of cake, while also nursing our cups of hot coffee, we paid and then waited for seating to open up and to receive the rest of our order piecemeal. We didn't have to wait too long to receive our food or a spot.
The coffee was, like most dark roasts, simple and pretty one note - but in the end of the day, I think that if there's any acceptable situation for a charcoal-y, chocolate-y dark roast, then it's as an accompaniment to complex sweets.
The beignet was served hot in a brown paper bag filled with powdered sugar. This hot little ball of fried dusted dough was pretty perfect. A crisp exterior gave way to a core that was so delightfully and daringly on the threshold of being uncooked. Each bite projected a cloud of powdered sugar into the air that reminded me of the sprays of snow kicked up by a downhill skier (or the white haze surrounding Tony Montana's face after a healthy dose of Colombian nose candy)!
Next up were the breakfast sandwiches: a heaping portion of scrambled eggs, perfectly crispy and thick bacon with a cascading avalanche of gooey melted cheese served between two slices of buttery, flaky biscuit. Re the Special: I felt like the aioli and butteriness of the biscuit almost steered the experience into the realm of excessive richness, but I think if you are truly hungry then it walks the line nicely. These would be a great take-away breakfast to go before hitting the highway for a weekend getaway to Shasta or Tahoe. Also, the supreme richness of the biscuits leads me to believe that they would best be enjoyed plain, with a generous spread of Bon Mama preserves.
The carrot cake checked all the boxes, but didn't strike me as particularly unique except for the cream cheese frosting, which leans more towards the savory cheese side of the spectrum than the typical sweet frosting.
But it was the cinnamon roll that stole the show for me. This sweet serving of confectionary perfection embodied everything to me that makes Devil's Teeth a special place indeed. This cinnamon roll satisfies all of the classic elements - gooey sweetness, rich glazing and buttery cinnamon swirls - while also delivering a new and unique experience.
These babies are constructed with an extremely thin, dense, flaky and buttery band of almost croissant-like dough that wraps around and around, sort of like ye olde elementary/middle school snack time favorite: Fruite by the Foote! The delight and anticipation aroused by peeling away the strips and layers of sticky cinnamon goodness was just as rewarding as (and elevated) the bites that followed. This baked good engages your mind and sense of touch as well as your stomach, nose and tongue to create a holistically satisfying and wholly original sensory experience.
Tucked away on an understated Sunset strip is Devil's Teeth Baking Company - a rebellious pirate ship paradoxically offering the most traditional of comforts (baked goods and coffee) with a unique, effective, soulful and authentic edge of understated creative eccentricity. I'm really glad that a place like this exists in the Sunset, and I look forward to coming back - rain or shine. read more