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Bread. All of us have had it, but perhaps not many of us have ever made it. For the past 10 years Lane Levine, owner of A Friendly Bread, has been baking up a tasty storm. It all started one Christmas Eve when he and his husband David wanted some challah bread. The bakery they had frequented was closed, so Lane decided to throw on an apron and that night he learned how to make Challah bread. He got good at it, really good. He eventually got into sourdough bread, which is notoriously difficult to perfect. In the beginning, he had some really good loaves, but also some not so very good ones. Once he began to perfect his technique his friends would tell him that they couldn’t find bread like his anywhere in Baltimore, and that he should sell it. He would also frequently bring loaves to his old boss, but eventually, she said “Stop giving these to me for free! I want to pay you for them.” At around that same time, David was getting slightly annoyed with a freezer full of bread all the time, and told Lane that he needed to do something with it all. So in 2017, Lane became a business owner and started A Friendly Bread. 

Lane hasn’t had any formal training or schooling for baking, he is completely self-taught. He’s read countless books, watched dozens of youtube videos, is an active member of the Facebook group Perfect Sourdough (a group dedicated solely to baking sourdough bread), and a little closer to home, Lane’s own grandfather was a great baker. His grandfather baked for 50 years and while he didn’t do it professionally, he was always baking. Around the holidays he would bake 50 loaves of challah and gift them to everyone at the local synagogue. Much like his grandfather, Lane bakes because he enjoys it, and he recalls as a kid always experimenting with cooking. Which Lane still does today. When A Friendly Bread first began, Lane recruited five of his friends to be taste testers and for two months he baked two different loaves each week.  He delivered those loaves along with an excel form that asked the taste testers to provide feedback on crust, flavor, crumb, general appearance, and other factors. He collected all of this data and used it to perfect his current recipes, which you can taste in every bite of A Friendly Bread’s flavorful loaves. 

Lane doesn’t like to consider himself a baker, rather a business owner who makes a product people really love while figuring out innovative ways to get it out into the world. When he first started baking and selling his bread, he would have people preorder, then come to pick it up at his house and it soon became a little party.  A group of strangers turned friends, meeting and interacting with one another over bread. This concept is very important to Lane. “I’m trying to give people an experience of bread being fun, and for sharing and for communing with each other.” As A Friendly Bread has grown he has maintained this simple concept. He would also love to change people’s mindset about bread. “There’s all this anti-carb bullshit that a lot of people are trying to do, people’s relationship with bread is so fraught and negative, but sourdough bread is not bad for you, its actually really good for you and I want people NOT to feel bad about it. It has such a wholesomeness and it’s just delicious.” Which is why selling and handing out samples of various flavors at farmers markets was an obvious business decision for A Friendly Bread, but also a kind of motivator for Lane. “I love the interactions with people at the farmers market. We really try to make it fun and comfortable, my husband is there with me on Saturday at the Fells Point Farmers Market, my dad goes with me every Tuesday to the Pikesville Market, even my old boss helps me sometimes. We just have fun and give out samples and talk to people the whole time.” 

Lane is growing a business, so of course, it hasn’t been all fun. Lane recalled when he first started how difficult it was not only trying to get the recipes down, but also the logistics of his new business. “There were a few things in the beginning. One time I had so many orders and I was working as hard as I could to fulfill them, I decided to turn up the heat to cook them quicker. [chuckles] You can’t do that. Also trying to figure out a schedule, like, do I bake all Saturday night into early morning? The answer is yes.  Or baking it halfway the night before, and in the morning baking it the rest of the way? Nope, that doesn’t work.” While figuring out these things, there was also the challenge of mastering the active natural culture that rises sourdough bread. “It’s all about managing the fermentation process. You have to be careful not to over-ferment or the acid that’s created will eat away at all the gluten strands, but at the same time you have to make sure it’s not under-fermented or it’ll be too dense to eat.” Then there’s the whole process of shaping the dough perfectly. “It’s a wet dough so it’s kind of hard to work with, you have knead it, but you don’t want to overdo it because you’ll lose all the nice bubbles.” 

In his short time in business Lane has already had many accomplishments. He was able to leave his full-time job in May of 2018 to give A Friendly Bread his full attention. He moved from baking in his home to B-More Kitchen, a shared workspace proving the Baltimore’s food entrepreneurs space and resources. Another success for Lane is validation from other culinary professionals. In his time at B-More Kitchen, a few other caterers there began sourcing his bread for their items. Lane also recalled a moment from the beginning. “One person heard about it from a neighborhood listserv, he ordered a loaf, picked it up and brought it to Union Craft Brewery and shared it with people there. Then someone who tried a piece called me and said ‘do you have any more? I’ll come pick it up right now.’” this moment was significant to Lane because that’s when he first knew this could actually be something successful. 

If you’ve tried his bread then you would be in total agreement that Lane is pretty successful at what he does. All of A Friendly Bread’s loaves have an excellent crust, just the right amount of chewiness and they’re all perfectly moist. Not to mention the variety of delectable flavors to choose from. In between mastering his recipes and capturing that perfect “crumb shot” (its a thing – google it), Lane has surely narrowed down his favorite flavor, right?  His favorites are the poppyseed (which is amazing) and also the walnut date.  The turmeric loaf and olive loaf are also really marvelous. What are you waiting for? Order some bread. You’ll be glad you did.  And remember, its best when shared! 

Lane Levine’s advice for other bakers or any creators in general:

“One way to get discouraged is to try something without taking small incremental steps and failing. So go for it but don’t get discouraged when you fail.”  

“Take and enjoy the small pieces of validation. Celebrate the wins!”

“See any setbacks as business problems to overcome, not failures.”

To order an artesian loave for yourself, visit A Friendly Bread’s website and stay connected on Facebook and Instagram.

All images and content created by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Nick Hanyok Imaging.
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