1. Twenty 40
Los Feliz
It doesn’t get more classic than the roll (above) at Karen Yoo and Nathan McCall’s European-style café hidden along Hillhurst. (The husband-and-wife team also runs the butcher shop across the street.) Lacquered with the right amount of vanilla glaze, this homey pastry puts that doughy little Pillsbury lad to shame.
2. Cinnaholic
Echo Park
Build your own roll at this Echo Park bakery, which offers a range of frostings (peanut butter, banana cream, coffee) and toppings (raspberries, pecans, cookie dough) to jazz up your custom creation. The concept might seem familiar: Its creators appeared on the reality TV show Shark Tank.
3. Lodge Bread Co.
Culver City
Though best known for its hearty wild fermented loaves, this Culver City bakery draws morning crowds with softball-size sourdough cinnamon rolls. Don’t let the fact that they’re made with whole grains fool you—each decadent roll is dolloped with cream cheese frosting that dribbles down the sides.
4. Copenhagen Pastry
Culver City
In Denmark a cinnamon roll is known as a kanelsnegl (“cinnamon snail”), a term that is vastly superior to our own. Find some at Copenhagen Pastry, a Danish bakery dedicated to flaky Scandinavian delights, many with equally entertaining names.
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