"While our little corner is technically in Pasadena, the West Altadena community is where the majority of our customers lived." Leah Ferrazzani said that to the Pasadena Star-News this spring. Her sentence tells you where the corner at Lincoln Avenue and the Altadena line actually sits, and it has little to do with the city limit.
For close to a decade, that corner has been one shared parking lot with three food businesses facing it, and it started with one chef inviting another in. The corner's first business on the other side of Lincoln is next. Lodge Bread Company is moving into 1951 Lincoln Ave., a building that stood vacant when the bakery first announced its plans, and Eater LA has projected an early-November opening for a full bakery café directly across from the original cluster.
How the corner came together
The story starts with Christine Moore. She built Little Flower Candy Company in her Highland Park home kitchen, and in 2007 she opened the Little Flower café and bakery on West Colorado Boulevard. According to LAist, her name became tied to sea-salt caramels and handmade marshmallows.
The corner took shape in a few steps:
- 2016. Moore opened Lincoln, a restaurant at 1992 Lincoln Ave. in northern Pasadena.
- 2017. Moore invited Leah Ferrazzani into the Lincoln Avenue building. The Star-News described her goal as building "a corner of incredible female-owned businesses."
- 2020. Lincoln closed permanently, as Pasadena Now reported that June.
- February 2024. Ferrazzani rebranded her Semolina Artisanal Pasta business as Ferrazzani's Pasta & Market in its tenth year. She told Appetito the change was meant to put the specialty foods and the neighborhood shop up front.
- By late 2024. HomeState was running at 1992 Lincoln, Lincoln's old address, with a large patio. The Star-News reviewed it that November.
- By spring 2025. Kismet Rotisserie had opened its Pasadena location at 1974 Lincoln.
Each of these businesses has women at the helm. HomeState is Briana and Andy Valdez's. Kismet Rotisserie belongs to Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson. Ferrazzani runs her own shop.
Who held the corner together in 2025 and 2026
The Eaton fire tested how much the corner depended on its neighbors to the north. Ferrazzani told the Pasadena Star-News that after the fire, customers sent "tearful messages... saying how grateful they were that we were still standing." She also said many people nearby were still working to remediate or rebuild their homes.
Moore spent those weeks doing what she was known for. The Star-News recalled how she made her Colorado Boulevard bakery a meal-distribution site, feeding evacuees and first responders.
On March 29, 2026, the three businesses turned their shared parking lot at 1976 Lincoln Ave. into "She Built This," a block party that raised money for Brick by Brick. That Altadena nonprofit helps uninsured and underinsured homeowners rebuild. The lot works as the corner's front porch, and the block party showed it.
What each spot does, by the clock
The three original businesses split the day between them more cleanly than you might guess from the street:
- HomeState, 1992 Lincoln Ave. Open daily 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. It serves tacos and Tex-Mex favorites and has a large patio. HomeState is the corner's early opener.
- Ferrazzani's Pasta & Market, 1978 Lincoln Ave. Open daily 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Expect handmade fresh pasta, lasagna, panini and sandwiches, dolci, biscotti, Italian ice and Italian pantry goods. Dried pasta and gift sets also ship.
- Kismet Rotisserie, 1974 Lincoln Ave. Open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with rotisserie chicken, chicken plates and bowls, pita sandwiches and salads.
Ferrazzani's closes at 6. Its dinner option is the take-home Pasta Club box of fresh pasta, sauce and something sweet, available for pickup or local delivery. On a weeknight that means you pick up tomorrow's dinner at Ferrazzani's in the afternoon, then eat tonight's at Kismet or HomeState in the evening.
The other side of Lincoln
Lodge Bread's Pasadena location has taken its time. A November 2024 report from What Now Los Angeles first placed Lodge at 1951 Lincoln Ave., in a vacant building where an earlier restaurant proposal had stalled, and projected a Winter 2025 opening. In its fall 2026 openings preview, Eater LA put the date at "early November."
Eater's description shows how much the café adds to the block:
"Lodge Pasadena will feel expansive, clocking in at 3,000 square feet with 75 indoor and patio seats."
This will be Lodge's fourth location, led by Or Amsalam and Arthur Sherman. The menu follows the company's best-known items: baked goods, oversized cinnamon rolls, sandwiches, shakshuka, salads and freshly made breads. A sister concept, Full Proof Pizza Company, will share part of the space, and its site says it opens in January 2027.
Lodge's own homepage still says only "opening fall 2026." In late October its location page listed the Pasadena address with no hours or menu, so check it before you plan a weekend morning around a cinnamon roll.
Lodge's Pasadena plans date to November 2024, before the fire, so its arrival is the end of a long buildout, not a recovery story. It still changes the corner. Once Full Proof opens, the corner will cover a bakery morning, a pasta-and-tacos afternoon and a pizza evening without anyone moving their car.
A Saturday on both sides of the street
Here is one way to spend a day on the block once Lodge's doors are open:
- Start at Lodge for coffee, a pastry or shakshuka on the patio.
- Cross to Ferrazzani's after 11 for fresh pasta and pantry goods for Sunday dinner.
- Pick up a whole rotisserie chicken at Kismet Rotisserie on the same visit, or come back for a plate or bowl later in the day.
- If you'd rather have tacos, HomeState runs until 9.
Where the corner's founder still shows up
You'll also find Moore's influence a few miles southwest. Little Flower is still running on West Colorado Boulevard and is taking orders through its Thanksgiving 2026 order form, which lists a pickup schedule. Its current online ordering page gives the pickup address as 1424 West Colorado Blvd. Before the holiday rush, put a Little Flower Thanksgiving order and a Ferrazzani's pasta pickup on the same list.
Corners like this one are a big part of how a neighborhood feels to the people who live near it, and that matters when a longtime homeowner is thinking about what comes next. If you or a parent are weighing a move and would like to stay within walking distance of a block like Lincoln Avenue, Laurie Turner knows these northwest Pasadena streets well and is glad to talk it through with you calmly. Let's Connect.
