Crazy Good Bread Co.

Great people! Awesome bread! So glad to see this place come to the area!

I was passing through town and decided to grab some chocolates based on the great Unilocal reviews. I parked in front of Crazy Bread and popped in to check it out. Friendly service and a recommendation led me to purchase an almond brioche. It turned out to be delicious and one of the best I have tasted. Highly recommend!

While visiting a couple friends in Carpinteria, we went here to get a few essentials for a tapas lunch (cheeses, fruit, etc.). I’ve lived in a lot of different cities and have had the pleasure of visiting alot of different artisan bread shops (retail locations and pop-​ups in farmer’s markets) from Irvine all the way up to Santa Rosa.
How can you tell if a loaf of bread or large pastry is good? By it’s resiliency. Gently poke the uncut loaf in the middle and see if it’s able to reform it’s original shape. This technique works for most bread and pastries with a sizable thickness. If you can’t poke it easily or doesn’t reform to it’s original shape, it’s a sign the bread has lost too much moisture (old or overcooked).
After sampling some of the bread, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil (smokey olive oil is GREAT), we purchased 2 loaves, 10 pretzels, 1 croissant, and 1 bottle of their fig balsamic vinegar.
Croissant: Loved it. Was buttery without being oily. Crunchy crust that immediately gave way to moist, chewy underlayers.
Pretzels: Traditional Bavarian pretzels has a «tougher» skin, but I think these are ideal for the American palette. Definitely my favorite kind of pretzel. Although if I wanted something more traditional, Alpine Village in Torrance has my top pick.
Bread (one summer and one olive): Both bread were amazing and hearty. Eating them on Day 1 was perfect, no heating necessary. Day 2 was also great to use as toast for brunch. We finished what was left on Day 3 by making paninis.
Fig Balsamic Vinegar: The best I’ve had. Creamy, sweet, and slightly acidic — will definitely become a staple in meals going forward.
It’s amazing the difference in taste and texture when no preservatives are used. I’m very sad they don’t have a location in LA… hopefully one day soon!

While visiting Carpenteria this summer I asked a local about his favorite places. Crazy Good Bread was one of them, but I didn’t get there until my family and I were leaving town. Next time I will be stopping there first thing to get a few loaves of their delicious bread.
The store is located in an unassuming industrial compound. (My assumption is that they bake the bread on the premises but I don’t know for sure.) In the front is a cute little shop with baskets of bread lining the wall, a table with bread, olive oil and vinegars to taste, and a shelf full of wonderful looking olive oils, vinegars and jams.
The bread all looked wonderful but I was really intrigued by the Orange-​Chocolate loaf. What can I say. WOW!!! I’m embarrassed to say I ate the whole thing myself over next few days. It was that good. I also picked up a bottle of the pear balsamic vinegar and the blood orange cold pressed olive oil. I tried them both at the store and they were incredible.
The only reason they don’t get 5 stars is because I want to try more of their products, which I will be doing as soon as I return to Carpenteria.

We were heading out on a road trip and spontaneously did a search for fresh baked bread in Santa Barbara. This bakery popped up and we loved the whole logo, name etc and decided to give it a shot.
We stopped by their Carpinteria location which seems to be the wholesale bakery with a small storefront. There were NO BREADS displayed — we actually thought we might be in the wrong place. A friendly young lady approached from behind a doorway and asked what we would like. We answered fresh breads, she named maybe 2 different loaves that were available and suggested we visit the Montecito location.
Majorly disappointed by the lack of eye candy — bread, bread, glorious bread we headed to said location.
Even more sad, 4 pretzel sticks in a jar and one lemon loaf and a walnut loaf. This being at 11 am mid week.
It seems like a pretentious «bread boutique» rather than the mouth watering image you get online. We did buy those 4 pretzels and they were unmemorable. Certainly not bad but certainly not worth returning for. We also bought the walnut loaf which was in the same caliber.
Hopefully they will fill their shelves and draw a bigger crowd thus offering a better selection.

We heard this place was good, so we bought a few loaves for Easter… Pricey…bread was ok… tried it a second time hoping to give them another chance, and was very disappointed… not fresh at all… and for the price it would be better to go to Von’s or anywhere else…
The bread was at least a couple of days old…

This bakery has come out to the new Wednesday Farmer’s Market at UCSB which is where I have sampled and bought a couple of different flavored loaves. The chocolate with sea salt has been my favorite – I toasted it a little to warm the chocolate and spread cream cheese across the thick slice. I didn’t eat it all before it hardened and tried it in a bread pudding and it was delicious. I have been waiting from them to bring this loaf again just so I can make the dessert. The lemon was really good too. I never would have thought of flavored sourdough, but because it’s not too sour, the flavor combinations turn out well. Excited to learn these guys are in Carp.

CGB sells their bread fresh off the baker’s rack, so people can bring their own bags and make off with as many loaves as will fit their sacks or fill their tummies. Also, sold «naked» are pretzel sticks and croissants.
CGB’s rounds are more crusty than bready, so not great for sandwiches and such. People with more sophisticated tastes might like to pair their unique savory selections with cheese, tapenades, etc. So far, I like the orange chocolate best and, yes, I eat it as a dessert.