Hi, we are A Friendly Bread — a bread company that specializes in Obsessible Sourdough Snacks, made out of our signature delicious, naturally leavened sourdough bread. I’m Lane Levine, the founder and owner, and I started the business out of my house in 2017.
I was never a bread person growing up — and I was also never a cheese person. So starting a bread company that has begun focusing on grilled cheese — not an obvious move. But because of my pickiness, you can be assured that any product we create is going to meet my unreasonably high standards.
I started my working life as a non-profit and social justice professional, and while I arguably made some difference in the world — I felt that success was too hard to measure, and our results were often disappointing. I longed to engage more tangibly in the local economy. I turned a hobby into a side hustle, and turned the side hustle into a business.
A Friendly Bread consists of a small, diligent team of bakers who produce our obsessible snacks. We make it ourselves: sourdough is finicky and requires deep knowledge and expertise to make. I brought my pro-worker sensibility into this venture and prioritized good wages, paid vacation and health insurance, and other benefits for our team.
We started at Farmers Markets, then built up a “milkman”-style bread delivery service, then moved our bread into small grocers and farm stores. All the while, we experimented with other things we could do with our bread. We developed our Sourdough Toasts — a gourmet cracker made out of tiny loaves of sourdough bread, sliced and rebaked — and got them into wineries and grocery stores including Whole Foods and MOM’s*. The latest is our frozen Sourdough Grilled Cheese, which has really captured people’s hearts and hit the big time. By April 2023, Sourdough Grilled Cheese will be carried in approximately 500 grocery stores, including 160 locations of The Fresh Market, as well as most locations of Giant Food in Maryland, DC, Delaware and Virginia.
We will continue launching other products based on our delicious bread, including frozen french toast, snacking croutons, and other products we have yet to ideate.
We love sharing our bread-based products with you. Please enjoy A Friendly Bread!
*Unfortunately we decided to cease sales of our Sourdough Toasts to Whole Foods and MOM’s in order to focus more on Sourdough Grilled Cheese. But Sourdough Toasts are still available at The Wine Source as well as some other small Baltimore locations.
Hi, we are A Friendly Bread — a bread company that specializes in Obsessible Sourdough Snacks, made out of our signature delicious, naturally leavened sourdough bread. I’m Lane Levine, the founder and owner, and I started the business out of my house in 2017.
I was never a bread person growing up — and I was also never a cheese person. So starting a bread company that has begun focusing on grilled cheese — not an obvious move. But because of my pickiness, you can be assured that any product we create is going to meet my unreasonably high standards.
I started my working life as a non-profit and social justice professional, and while I arguably made some difference in the world — I felt that it was too immeasurable and often disappointing. I longed to engage more tangibly in the local economy. I turned a hobby into a side hustle, and turned the side hustle into a business.
A Friendly Bread consists of a small, diligent team of bakers who produce our obsessible snacks. We make it ourselves: sourdough is finicky and requires deep knowledge and expertise to make. I brought my pro-worker sensibility into this venture and prioritized good wages, paid vacation and health insurance, and other benefits for our team.
We started at Farmers Markets, then built up a “milkman”-style bread delivery service, then moved our bread into small grocers and farm stores. All the while, we experimented with other things we could do with our bread. We developed our Sourdough Toasts — a gourmet cracker made out of tiny loaves of sourdough bread, sliced and rebaked — and got them into wineries and grocery stores including Whole Foods and MOM’s*. The latest is our frozen Sourdough Grilled Cheese, which has really captured people’s hearts and hit the big time. By April 2023, Sourdough Grilled Cheese will be carried in approximately 500 grocery stores, including 160 locations of The Fresh Market, as well as most locations of Giant Food in Maryland, DC, Delaware and Virginia.
We will continue launching other products based on our delicious bread, including frozen french toast, snacking croutons, and other products we have yet to ideate.
We love sharing our bread-based products with you. Please enjoy A Friendly Bread!
*Unfortunately we decided to cease sales of our Sourdough Toasts to Whole Foods and MOM’s in order to focus more on Sourdough Grilled Cheese. But Sourdough Toasts are still available at The Wine Source as well as some other small Baltimore locations.
