That's very cool, but jeez is that really in line with the price of baked bread in San Francisco?
This morning, 3,50€ bought me half a kilo of 5-cereals focaccia, two loaves of cereal breada and half a kilo of white bread. That's bread for a eight people lunch. That's probably one of the few things I'm gonna miss about Italy when I'll leave.
I suppose you're located in the south of Italy, as in the north (Milan for example) bread (standard, not multicereal or special ones) is around 4-5€ per kilo.
NB I'm Italian now in Luxembourg and one of the thing I miss is the quality of bread (here it is generally not very good, too many "boulangerie" of the same brand, Fischer, with all the same bread / taste). And of course it is even more expensive...
It's not outrageous for a decent loaf of sourdough in SF. It seems like a really niche market though...doesn't really feel like a business to me. I don't think SF is short of places to get bread - there's a local bakery and a whole foods ten minutes walk away from me. Seems like a solution in search of a problem, really...
If you live in a city or near a town center, you can probably walk to a decent bakery in five minutes.
You can also buy frozen or vacuum-packed half-baked bread from a supermarket, keep it around, and make some very nice fresh bread by sticking it in the oven for 20 minutes.
