Top 5 Sourdough Breads in St. Louis, Chosen by Our Critic

By Cheryl Baehr on Thu, Sep 21, 2023 at 6:00 am

A few years ago, it seemed like every last one of us was going to become an artisan baker, bartering our house plant seedlings for sourdough starters like we were in some pandemic-induced, communal utopia.

While for most of us, those bread-baking dreams went out the window, all is not lost. These five sourdough sources offer us the opportunity to experience bread as good as if it was freshly baked in our own ovens — or, let's be real, probably better.

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Lauren Milford

Knead Bakehouse + Provisions
After realizing his passion for fermentation centered around bread, not beer, Knead Bakehouse (3467 Hampton Avenue, kneadbakehouse.com) co-owner AJ Brown enrolled in the prestigious Institute Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, where he learned the basics for making world-class sourdough bread. Right after his return from France, he and his wife, Kirsten, started selling his wares at area farmers' markets, then opened the delightful bakeshop, where the delicious sourdough sets the standard for the form.

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Mabel Suen

Union Loafers Café and Bread Bakery
Though it's easy to become distracted by the excellent sandwiches, outstanding pizza and that best-in-class Little Gem salad, a simple bite of Union Loafers' (1629 Tower Grove Avenue, unionloafers.com) Light and Mild (or whole wheat Janie's Bread, Oat Porridge or Semolina) slathered with an unholy amount of whipped butter will remind you where it all started.

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Cheryl Baehr

Mr. Meowski's Sourdough
Once upon a time, Timothy Nordmann was a home baker himself, trying to figure out what to do with his life after feeling burned out by his career as a wedding videographer. He threw himself into creating the most perfect sourdough he could make, eventually developing a following among family, friends, farmers'-marketgoers and now anyone who wants a taste of excellence from his quaint storefront, Mr. Meowski's Sourdough (107 North Main Street, St. Charles; mrmeowski.com) in the heart of St. Charles' historic Main Street.

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RFT file photo

222 Artisan Bakery & Cafe
Originally started by the multi-talented Goshen Coffee founder Matt Herren, 222 Artisan Bakery (222 North Main Street, Edwardsville, Illinois; 222artisanbakery.com) has a new life under current, bread-obsessed co-owner Trevor Taynor. A graduate of the San Francisco Bread Institute, Taynor now teaches bread-making through Southern Illinois University, proving his sourdough is a masterclass.

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Upper Crust Bread As an acclaimed barman, Jeffrey Moll has always taken a professorial approach to his craft, so when he got into exploring fermentation for dietary purposes, it made sense that he would go on a deep dive down the rabbit hole of naturally fermented sourdough bread. Upper Crust Bread (uppercruststl.com), his weekly pickup and delivery bread outfit, is the result of his experimentation with the form, with sourdough so good it could earn him a Ph.D. in bread baking.

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