Hygge Bakery will lure you to downtown LA with the promise of marzipan

Does LA Traffic leave you feeling down?  Is the daily grind wearing away at your commuter soul?  If this is how you're feeling, it may have nothing to do with traffic at all.  It may just be that you're not eating enough marzipan.  Think about it: when was the last time you sunk your teeth into a genuine Danish pastry?  My sense is that you've likely been denying yourself this experience, whether you know it or not.  Enter Hygge Bakery, to take care of all your warm, flaky Danish fresh baked good needs.  I went to Hygge after it first opened and have yet to experience anything in LA as close to a Copenhagen style Danish bakery.  I would urge anyone in the LA area to try their offerings as soon as you can.  The custard, icing, and chocolate pastry called the "slice" (pictured below) is always a favorite option of mine, and the "snails" are also particularly popular.  (I observed one man lamenting that he had woken up too late and his favorite snail had sold out.)  Downtown is so lucky to have this gem of a bakery-- in fact, you might even find yourself making up excuses to go to downtown just to get a taste.  Next time, consider stopping at Hygge before you're faced with a traffic jam: just imagine, instead of feeling bombarded by billboard ads or confrontational road rage, you'll be savoring some flaky pastry dough and singing your favorite road tunes.  Don't forget to open your sunroof and take in a little of that LA sunshine.  Why not make your commute to work a little more pleasant?  

(Author's note: Exercise caution while driving and eating pastries-- That steering wheel could get a little buttery.)

I'd like to say "Tak" to Hygge Bakery for delivering a little Denmark to downtown LA

I'd like to give Hygge Bakery a heartfelt "tak" (that's Danish for thanks") for bringing some real Danish culture to my Los Angeles life.  While the last time I was in Denmark was in 2005, I've definitely been obsessing about going back ever since.  To this day, carefully written English letters recieved from my host family continue to remind me of a culture I fell in love with, and a city of artfully executed pastry that will always lure me back for more.  With an actual Dane backing the Hygge Bakery business, it's the closest thing I've tasted to real Danish baked goods since the days of wandering the Copenhagen streets with glee as I made one pastry discovery after another.  The Danes I met, and who I now keep in touch with, remain a part of me, and Hygge is a great reminder of the food we shared. While I questioned whether their Danish pastries and coffee would warm the soul as much in the Southern California winter as in Copenhagen's, Hygge did not dissapoint.  Any Scandinavian culture enthusiasts out there?  The annual Scandinavian film festival runs this weekend, January 9-10, and next weekend, January 16-17 in Beverly Hills.  Best of all, the event is put on by the non-profit American Scandinavian Foundation of LA, making it that much cooler.