Made using whole-grain, certified gluten-free flours and local and organic produce, it’s also egg-, soy-, nut-, sugar-, dairy-, tapioca-, garbanzo bean–, potato starch–, and baker’s yeast–free, making it a lifeline for pretty much any food- restricted bread lover lamenting the loss of one of life’s most glorious eating pleasures.

But Sadie’s sourdough is not just a love story for those pining for the most satisfying of glutenous trysts. Its creation was literally a labor of love that came about in an attempt to bake her way into a man’s heart. A fresh New York transplant in 2010 still smitten with her gluten-intolerant San Franciscan college crush, Sadie rolled up her sleeves and headed into the kitchen. After toying with gluten-free bread recipes for six months, she started selling whatever flavor she came up with— salsa, coconut, tomato-basil—through a blog. She announced the week’s flavors online, took orders, and delivered about twenty loaves a week by bicycle to locals. About fourteen months in, she was still working as a barista at San Francisco’s famed Blue Bottle Coffee when she created the sourdough recipe that stuck. A subsequent plug on DailyCandy in 2012 caused a business spike so dramatic she was clocking a hundred bike miles weekly before hiring a small fleet of bike- delivery women, securing a co-op commercial kitchen, and baking full time.

Today, Sadie’s business is still on the rise. The seven hundred loaves of sourdough she bakes each week in a gluten-free commercial kitchen are sold to nearly twenty Bay Area boutique grocers and a growing number of addicts across the country who get their fix by mail order. She’s got two baking employees and enough business to keep her elbow-deep in dough for years to come. Oh, and she got the guy, too.

Shop here to find Bread SRSLY products and use code gffmag5 to get $5 off your first order!

Story Erika Lenkert / Photography Maren Caruso

NOTE: We only recommend products that we truly LOVE, use, and are confident to recommend. Thanks to affiliate partnership opportunities, we sometimes earn a small commission if you make a purchase through a product link on our site at no cost to you. But this has no influence on what we recommend. When we do score a few shekels, know that your purchase helps support our work to bring you trustworthy, unbiased information on an amazing gluten-free food and lifestyle.