As of the end of August, Bread Bike had 168 CSB members!ĭeNicola brought in Grady as a co-owner of the Bread Bike family in April. The concept of building a mobile sliced-bread and pastry cafe powered by bikes evolved into its current state as a community supported bakery (CSB) and pop-up bread stand at places like Etto Pastificio in Paso Robles' Tin City or Lincoln Market & Deli in SLO. Soon, Cal Poly was adding his loaves to its CSA boxes and people were checking out the daily baked goods on Instagram.īread Bike began a year ago. Later on down the road, he was peddling loaves on a lawn at Cal Poly, and his bread business sparked by word of mouth. His dream had always been to turn his baking into a way of sustaining himself, and he never stopped baking and cooking for all his friends. He tended to chickens and even, as a lifelong vegetarian, stepped out of his comfort zone and purchased cow shares from local ranchers.ĭespite that accomplishment, he entered the rat race for a couple of years after college as a software engineer. There, as head cook and food buyer (with $100,000 yearly budget), he began making pizza and concocting kombucha. It so happened that DeNicola was given the momentous task of feeding his housemates in a 50-person, coed, co-op house while going to UC Berkeley. Which geophysics class teaches bread baking, you ask? Well, none. But he really wet his feet when going to UC Berkeley for his geophysics degree. His mother, a nutritionist and healing foods cookbook author, was one of his big inspirations in his passion for cooking. He said he's been "playing with dough" and making breads, pizzas, and pastas for the past eight years.ĭeNicola has never tried Cocoa Puffs, and he wouldn't even want to. Everyone was just so grateful that I was there, and I could see how excited they were about that social interaction," DeNicola said.ĭeNicola, 28, is a baker, biker, health food lover, and co-owner of Bread Bike. Especially in the very beginning, it was just so awesome to see everyone. Seeing the people of SLO is his favorite part of the job. If he's in a rush, he flits off to his next delivery, but sometimes he keeps a distance and stays for a chat. He sets the bread down on the doorstep and knocks. He said there were times when a one-hour delivery run would take four, just because so many people needed to visit with a fellow human. He admits he likes to talk, and he realized-especially at the beginning of the shutdowns-that people miss connecting with others. When DeNicola delivers, he sometimes ends up clocking in some porch time. If something is cheap, there's a reason it's cheap." "Everyone is working extremely hard, but I think that understanding is really lacking in our culture. "Spending money on food is the easiest thing I do because I understand there's no one in the food world getting rich," he said. He said the value of buying local comes through in both better flavor and in terms of keeping the planet healthy. "As we grow, we actually gain the ability to support local growers and small growers." "To me it's so important to know where our food comes from, to know who is making our food and how the food is being made," DeNicola said. The co-owning pair prefers working with regional growers and millers, choosing the highest quality, California-grown bread flour. You name it, they've made it rise in SLO!Īll are made with 100 percent organic flours and grains and fermented with a 12-year-old sourdough culture from Sonoma County, where DeNicola grew up and where Grady learned how to bake bread. In fact, the co-owners say the bread is almost secondary to their mission to unite the community in good health and personal connection.īread Bike's fresh breads are always delicious and ever-changing. In the time of coronavirus, this pure union of bread baking and doorstep delivery is something that makes the world a little happier. I mean bread coming to me on a bike? Well, I guess life ain't so bad! When I heard about Bread Bike, my heart was filled with romance. As soon as her gorgeous loaves and scones come out of the oven, Sam DeNicola, who loves his community, the environment, and riding his bicycle, loads up his bike trailer and rides from house to house delivering bread. Mariah Grady, who loves to bake bread as much as San Luis Obisbans love to smell it along Higuera Street, revs up her apron around 4 a.m. The Bread Bike concept is so simple, it's genius.
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