Three Square Bakery
1121 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA

Venice has that extremely laid back vibe, with its ocean breeze, trendy couples that walk dogs, sun-tanned surfers. Abbot Kinney is a great street for chachkey stores, GREAT coffee...and home to a new Rockenwagner Bakery called Three Square.

Clean construction, clean lines - design is solid. Love the wood elements for the glass case. But I don't think they thought the chairs all the way through - as I found out, when we sat down to eat our purchases - the chairs were too highly situated, and the table then cut into our legs as we tried to eat. Thumbs down boo!!
Aside from that, I love this wall - floor to celing blackboard paint, with the specials written in colored chalk. Nice touch. So here's the sandwich that we shared - a Chicken Club Sandwich. I thought they were going to have made to order sandwiches, but they didn't - all of their sandwiches were pre-made, sitting in their open air refridgerator. Personally...I am not a huge fan of premade sandwiches. If I was going to get a premade sandwich at an upscale type place, I'd be much more satisfied with Bay Cities' version.
This sandwich was nothing special for the price tag. Standard chicken breast slices, (not horribly flavorful but at least moist), avocado (not brown...points for that) and thick bacon, with mayo and lettuce. A good sandwich...but not amazing. And check out the bread- this is bread I could have gotten from a white bread loaf at Mitsuwa! It might have been fresher but it sure tasted the same.
Here's a glance at their special, which I did not try - a weiner dog special, it seems, with the worthwhile whole mustard seed mustard, and a good lookin' roll. Maybe I should have gotten this instead, then I wouldn't have felt so ripped off.


I also got this - a breakfast muffin. I really liked the concept of it - more like a quiche-y portable baked good, it had egg, cheese and sausage embedded in its' carby innards. The sausage was delicious inside - good burst of flavor, with a nice snap to its' casing. Wish there was more of it in there - actually, wish there was more of it in general, as it was very pricey for something smaller than the palm of my hand (and I have really oddly small hands.) I should have warmed it up before I ate it, but I definitely got the sense of decadence in a baked good, cold or not.

Owen got an espresso brownie. (no picture, yes, drat.) He devoured it and loved it, although it's hard to beat the combo of coffee and chocolate for him.

What is the big deal about this place? Yes, location. Yes, decent baked goods. But I've had better and richer, other places, and for less moolah. So it gets a "eh...it's okay" from me.