SQIRL founder Jessica Koslow to partner with Long Beach’s Bake ‘N Broil for collaboration

by Brian AddisonJessica Koslow is known for many things: Her groundbreaking, insanely popular L.A. restaurant, SQIRL. Her dip into authorship. And even some mid-pandemic controversy (a story, mind you, definitely worth reading and using at your discretion to follow her future steps).One thing many did not know is her love for Long Beach, particularly Bake ‘N Broil, the bakery and restaurant birthed in 1965 by Roger and Carol Jongewaard and the epitome of a classic American coffeeshop and diner.Which explains her at-first-glance collaboration with the diner seemingly odd. One would think she would have stayed in L.A. proper, opting for Pann’s or Rae’s or Canter’s or…But she chose Long Beach’s Bake ‘N Broil, her collaboration a part of Resy’s nationwide “Classic Remix” program where contemporary cuisine leaders partner with their favorite, classic dining institutions.”When Resy asked if I would be interested in a SQIRL collaboration with a classic restaurant in L.A., the first place that came to mind is Bake ‘N Broil,” Koslow wrote on Instagram. “Many Angelenos are unfamiliar with the restaurant… [and] I hope this collaboration sheds light on the wonder that it is: a classic diner-type that makes all the soups and sauces in house, all pie dough by hand, and even the noodles for the chicken noodle soup.”The adoration for the Bixby Knolls spot is well-understood when Koslow shares her story: Born at Long Beach Memorial, Bake ‘N Broil sits perfectly between that very hospital she was born in and the home she grew up in.
Koslow noted that the restaurant has been a staple for “both young and old in the Long Beach community” but as “chefs and restaurant owners, we watch life move on: Children grow to become college kids, adults grow a bit grayer—and in turn, we become a little grayer ourselves. Teams join and move on, and sometimes the only permanence comes by way of the routine of opening and closing each day and night, year after year, bite after glorious bite—bites like the pecan pie from Bake ‘N Broil. Or the chicken pot pit that, well, I’ll get next time, because this time, they’re all sold out.”For $25 per ticket, Koslow and the Bake ‘N Broil team will be serving that very chicken pot pie a la Koslow, vegetable beef stew, cornbread, and for dessert, a play on the diner’s famed Holiday Lush Pie, this time around a Raspberry Lemon Lush pie.
Koslow will be serving up the meals for only three days, Nov. 5 through Nov. 7.For those that don’t know about the restaurant, Carol Jongewaard is truly the essence of Bake-n-Broil. A masterful baker, she could churn out an orange-glazed muffin that would simultaneously fill you with warmth while wondering just how one managed to get a muffin that moist, that flavorful and that decadent. Since her decedents have taken over for the past three decades or so, little has changed but the wallpaper, in the words of Koslow.Jongewaard’s Bake ‘N Broil is located at 3697 Atlantic Ave.