What an LA Bakery Says About the Economy Right Now
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What inspired Andy Kadin to start Bub & Grandma’s bakery and how did he transition from advertising to baking?
Hi, I'm David Weston. Join me every week for the Wall Street Week Podcast to hear stories of capitalism from around the world. From geopolitical tensions and central bank decisions to artificial intelligence, energy, and infrastructure, we sit down with the CEOs, economists, policymakers, and thought leaders whose decisions are shaping markets everywhere we find them. Subscribe to the Wall Street Week Podcast on Apple, Spotify. Five or anywhere you listen. Bloomberg Audio Studios,
Podcasts, Radio News.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the All Thoughts Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.
And I'm Joe Weisenthal.
Joe, I have a very personal question to ask you.
Well, we've known each other for a very long time, so there's not much left that we don't know, but go for it.
Well, I actually don't know the answer to this question. Um, have you ever baked anything?
Oh. Not that much. I went through this like I'm just gonna s the answer is basically no. Okay. I'm just gonna no.
Wait, you were gonna say something. You went through a phase. Long time in
high school I got in this like weird like experimental baking obsession with a friend of mine where we just sort of tried to relearn baking by first principles and see what worked.
Oh my god, what does that mean?
Just like not reading any recipe I don't so not reading any recipes and just start experimenting it out easier and then seeing like what caused things to rise and what tasted good without any starting principles or anything. We knew a few basic ingredients. It's fun. I should get back into bacon.
You should. It's really fun.
What do you like Tracy, we know this is just a setup because you want to talk about your bacon. So why don't you just why don't you just tell us what you like to bake?
Hey, look, I don't bake that much actually. In my household, my husband bakes everything. So he does a really good Basque cheesecake, really good chocolate chip cookies, things like that. But if you were doing first principle baking, I imagine you know how difficult it is and all the things that are involved in just making like a simple loaf of bread.
Uh, I I I am aware. And the other thing is not only um d uh I understand that it's uh very complex, but beyond that, I'm always flabbergasted at the idea of doing it at industrial scale or semi industrial scale and how that even works, I have no idea, to be honest. Honestly, industrial scale food preparation at all seems crazy to me. Like steaks and everything. Like how do you do it over and over and over again and get a repeatable process? It's like a fascinating question to me.
Right. So that's really interesting in and of itself. But the other interesting thing about the baking business at industrial scale, as you just pointed out, is it's kind of a microcosm for the economy. Yes. You have all these commodity inputs, which obviously move around along with inflation. You have labor issues. You have to get bakers who want to get into work really, really early in the morning. And obviously you also have consumer demand. So So it's really an interesting lens to kind of look through.
Well, one of our uh one of our the favorite episodes that we've ever done, I which I think was twenty twenty two or maybe twenty twenty one.
Long time ago.
Uh we talked to a commercial baker in Chicago and I've always wanted to do more. That was such a uh pivotal episode for us and I was like, Well, you know, we learned a lot about what was going on with c uh commodity costs, we learned a lot what was going on with pricing power, etcetera. Well, it's twenty twenty five now. I would like to learn more about what's going on.
All right. So we're gonna dive back into baking. Uh possibly not on a first principle basis, but we have the perfect guest. We're gonna be speaking with Andy Caden. He is
Wouldn't baking uh baking from first principles be a really good that would be a r that would be like a good name for a cookbook. All right, sorry, keep going.
Um good name for a baking podcast, perhaps. Okay. We're gonna be speaking with Andy Caden. He is the owner of a bakery in LA that's called Bub and Grandmas.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What inspired Andy Kadin to start Bub & Grandma’s bakery and how did he transition from advertising to baking?
0:00–4:55
2
How large is Bub & Grandma’s operation today and what does its wholesale business look like?
4:55–13:04
3
Why did Andy add a retail sandwich shop and a pizzeria to his bakery empire?
13:04–20:00
4
How does the bakery handle distribution and what challenges do its delivery vans face?
20:00–26:47
5
What are the biggest labor hurdles for an industrial‑scale bakery in Los Angeles?
26:47–33:34
6
How do fluctuations in flour prices and other commodity costs affect bread pricing?
33:34–39:51
7
What impact, if any, have recent tariffs had on the bakery’s equipment and ingredient costs?
39:51–45:38
8
What does Andy say about doing business in LA today – red tape, restaurant closures, and the city’s economic climate?
45:38–49:31
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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