Since opening its doors more than a decade ago, Proof Bakery in Atwater Village has become a pastry powerhouse. Every weekend, a line of hungry customers stretches out the door and onto Glendale Boulevard, waiting to get their hands on cardamom morning buns, kabocha tea cakes, fresh-baked baguettes and flaky croissants. If regulars had been paying attention in August 2021, they would have noticed a new, hand-painted sign on the front door, reading, "A WORKER-OWNED COOPERATIVE."
In August 2021, Proof founder Na Young Ma, a Los Angeles native who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, sold her bakery to her employees. It's one of a small but growing number of L.A. food businesses forgoing traditional corporate structures in favor of worker-owned co-ops.
Title card image via Proof Bakery Cooperative's Instagram page
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