Modern Bread & Bagel

Modern Bread & Bagel is a gluten-free bakery where the bagels deserve all the same compliments we’d give any great bagel: yeasty, chewy, and satisfyingly dense. The first West Coast location of a Manhattan-based mini-chain, Modern is located inside the massive Westfield Topanga shopping center. The subway-tiled space looks like a Panera store that won an HGTV makeover, but overall it’s a great option to slide in for a quick breakfast and coffee while sitting next to groups of moms burping their babies. The gluten-free pastries are good—we like the moist cinnamon bun topped with cream cheese frosting—but you’re really here for the bagels. They get a little too chewy if toasted, so we suggest eating them as is with cream cheese, or better yet as a sandwich filled with pastrami-cured lox, arugula, and sliced tomatoes.