Castro bread place

[Tobias]

Any reports on that new bread place in the Castro? I believe it's called Urban Bread and is on 18th near Noe.

[Windy]

I stopped in two weeks ago and was thoroughly unimpressed. It seems more like a bread store than a bakery. I asked the guy behind the counter which items they baked, and he said everything. But when I looked at the breads, they were from several different companies, including Panorama. The crusts weren't crisp, though, and the $3.99 pumpernickel I took home was disappointing.

They had samples of a couple of sweet breads--cranberry and pumpkin--that were okay, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Oh, and it's at 18th and Sanchez.

[johnsf]

I really like Urban Bread. The bread comes from the owner's family bakery and is delivered fresh by them every day. They do not bake on the premises (and they said are not allowed to bake in the store under the zoning rules.) I think the house brand is "Raymond's sourdough" They do have other brands as well that the bakery distributes and I think that is why there are others there.

I had an incredible cranberry walnut bread over Thanksgiving and everyone at the table loved it. I wish I had bought two. We also had a sourdough epi and that was also tasty but less remarkable.

I say welcome to the neighborhood! It is a vast improvement to anything that was there before and a friendly, independent, woman-owned, chow oriented place is a great addition to the Castro.

[friscofrog]

I live in the neighborhood and just noticed the place yesterday so I stopped by to investigate. The friendly woman running the place told me they opened about four weeks previously. They do not bake on the premises but get most of their baked goods from a family owned and operated facility in South SF. In addition to various flavored breads, they had a few Danish pastries and several varieties of croissants. I opted for a plain butter croissant. It was the largest croissant I have ever seen, and at $1.89 seemed like a bargain. When I got home I heated it up for a few minutes at 350 deg. in my toaster oven. It was very flaky and buttery but the interior was drier than I like. However slathered with additional butter and marmalade, it made a wonderful addition to my Saturday brunch.

[chocolateninja]

Place linking.