Busytown Bakery

What I thought would be a ho hum field trip was two hours of pure, fermented fun! The Franco American Bakery in Railroad Square Santa Rosa has been continuous operation since 1903. It has been owned by the Bastione family since 1928. Frank, recently handed over the business to his son, the third generation to run things. But Frank loves to give tours to schoolkids and he was such a gracious, delightful and informative host. He clearly loves bread. Their sourdough starter is older than him he proudly boasts. The kids LOVED every minute and got to see the whole process, plus knead and shape their own loaves that came home with them) plus a real loaf). Talk about building product loyalty. You can see more pictures here.

The best part to the day for me was discovering that Frank was best friends with our neighbor (now deceased). They met in grade school and were lifelong friends. And the family we bought our house from was also a friend, having sold Frank all his paper goods for 40 years. In many ways Santa Rosa is still the small town Alfred Hitchcock chronicled in Shadow of a Doubt in 1943. I love that about Santa Rosa.

I know has a teenager I couldn't wait to leave my home town of Omaha. And now it is has changed so much and grown so large it has lost that small town feel I remember. But SaRo still has it, if know where to look: the cobbler on Mendocino who took over for his dad, the burger joint that hasn't changed in 30 years, the neighborhood cemetery with family names you recognize. I know change is really all you can expect, but bread in some form (tortillas, buns, loafs) will probably be around all long time.