November 3 is National Sandwich Day. For me, a good sandwich starts with the bread. I recommend going with a sourdough bread for its nutritional benefits. Of course, choosing sourdough baked with organic flour is also a very important element. I’ve been on a journey for several years now to find organic sourdough bread. What started with people asking me if such thing exists has evolved into one of my most viewed articles. I never thought I’d discover this many organic sourdough breads sold in Los Angeles. The options are so wide that I had to break it up into two articles.
I previously talked about sourdough bakers in LA. The brick and mortar route where people can walk in and buy sourdough is a path many bakeries have taken. But there are numerous other options with just as great tasting sourdough. For various reasons, these artisan bakers offer their bread via alternative routes. From farmers markets to pickup windows to food delivery, many sourdough makers feel this is the best way to sell their product.
In alphabetical order, here are the 7 best organic sourdough breads available as popups, pickups, and delivery:
Bezian Bakery
Bezian Bakery shares the last name with its founder and owner Jack Bezian, who first became a bread baker in 1966. Jack soon developed an interest in sourdough when the first research was done in 1971 in San Francisco. His wife being a biochemist helped him out and he discovered how sourdough is easier to digest. In 1985, he entered into the world of sourdough. His sourdough bread is made with a culture containing multiple strains of gut flora.
Where to Buy: Santa Monica, Hollywood, and Pasadena Farmers Markets
Big Dog Artisan Breads
One of the newest players in SoCal sourdough bread baking is Big Dog Artisan Breads. Founded by Paul Prushan, Big Dog is making its way at numerous farmers markets. The bakery focuses on sourdoughs in the variety of country sourdough , rosemary olive-oil, multigrain, rustic sourdough, and baguettes.
Where to Buy: La Cañada, Westlake Village, and Warner Center Farmers Markets
Eric’s Sourdough
The city loaf pictured above is the signature loaf of Eric’s Sourdough. Eric’s menu also includes the unique offerings of a sourdough banana bundt and a sourdough banana muffin. Along with local pick-up, Eric’s Sourdough does catering, including on-set craft services.
Where to Buy: Order online for local pickup
Goldfruit Bakery
While he was bartending at Outerlands in San Francisco, Goldfruit Bakery founder Bobby Renz would work many nights where he saw the bakers making their bread. So Bobby decided to bake his own bread at home. He became addicted to it right away. He was then able to spend a couple nights a week in the bread bakery, learn from the extremely talented bread masters, and eventually earn his own shifts. In 2020, Bobby and his wife were planning on moving to Los Angeles. But then the pandemic happened. He got let go from his job, resulting in him spending plenty of time at home baking for his friends and family. Bobby and his wife moved to Long Beach in the summer. Then in 2021, he decided to live his dream and start his own bread business.
Where to Buy: Atwater Village Farmers Market or Order through his site and pick up on Sunday at Salad Juice in Long Beach
Häsi
Häsi‘s story originates with its founder Matias Barang (or Häsi as friends called him) learning to bake sourdough in Austria from a four generation baker family known as “Da Sticklerbäck”. From there, Häsi built a wood fired oven with his brother and father in their backyard in Studio City. He then began baking loaves weekly for his office co-workers, neighbors, and friends. When 2020 stopped his plan to lease space in Burbank for a bakery, Häsi built his own bakery in a residential area of Studio City. This allowed his business to function under the social distancing guidelines. The sourdough is made from a blend of the ancient grains khorasan, rye, and spelt. The beautifully colored bread uses real ingredients to get its colors. The blue color comes from a blue pea flower while the yellow is obtained from turmeric root.
Where to Buy: Order online for local pickup or nationwide shipping, the Larchmont, Redondo Beach, North Hollywood, Costa Mesa, Brentwood, Melrose Farmers Markets, Erewhon Market, Co-Opportunity, Good Eggs, and Imperfect Foods.
Out of Thin Air Bread
A rehab center kitchen in Los Angeles was what first sparked Out of Thin Air Bread founder Alessandro Jang to develop a passion for food. Alessandro spent a decade fighting drug addiction. His recovery was through serving food to his community. Being taught from some of the best bakers in LA, he devoted himself to learn everything there is to know about baking real bread. Then during the pandemic, Alessandro’s sourdough bread provided great comfort for his friends and family. This is led to his vision that was Out of Thin Air. Out of the Thin Air was started with the mission of offering income and stability to addicts in recovery wanting to assimilate back into the world by crafting real, low-and-slow fermented sourdough bread.
Where to Buy: LA River, Altadena, Atwater Village Farmers Markets and various wholesalers
Real Food Devotee
Monica Ford founded Real Food Devotee after real food had improved her health. Monica was able to eliminate all of her food allergies, seasonal allergies, and even heal a couple of cavities. She also hasn’t had a cold in almost ten years. After her health story success plus coming from a family in the restaurant business, she wanted to pay it forward and offer everybody a chance to have real food delivered to their homes. Real Food Devotee has a wide variety of nutrient dense, organic products made from scratch of everything from bone broths and soups to fermented vegetables to desserts and baked goods. Among her baked goods is a cranberry orange einkorn sourdough.
Where to Buy: Delivery through Real Food Devotee