Photo of the Week: Rye Goods, Newport Beach

“Somebody has been studying their Vermeer,” wrote a respected colleague when I shared this photo on my Instagram feed.

Let’s be clear: I’m no Vermeer. But he’s right. That Dutch Baroque still life is precisely the mood I was striving for with this image, inspired by a still-warm loaf of freshly baked sourdough from a beautiful new bakery called Rye Goods in Newport Beach.

The bakery, and this loaf itself, are a throw-back to simpler times. Slow food is the new luxury.

This little corner of Newport Beach has become such an interesting travel destination in recent years. It wasn’t long ago that this nook of the Balboa Peninsula was more or less the armpit of coastal Orange County. The beach was overrun with low-grade tourists, and the village around the harbor was dirty and literally falling down. But everything changed when the entire Lido Village was gutted redeveloped — restaurants, coffee shops, independent designer boutiques, a spa — and then came the arrival of the charming Lido House Hotel across the street. Rye Goods is the village’s latest upgrade.

It’s like an entirely new neighborhood now. I could easily and happily spend a long, luxurious weekend in Newport Beach’s Lido Village without ever feeling the desire to venture beyond this little peninsula.