The Oyster Loaf

Last week, after over a century of lying quiet and covered, new photographs of the April 18, 1906 quake of our fair San Francisco were brought to light by SFMTA, Haighteration and SFist:

Though unknown whose eyes and photographic instrument captured these moments, we were particularly inspired by the image of these three women:

In true SF entrepreneurial and start-up fashion, sisters Kate and Florence Voy constructed a pop-up food stand called “The Oyster Loaf” and shared the space with a neighbor who operated the other half of the kitchen, naming it “Chat Noir”.  Perhaps it was serendipitous coincidence that Wednesday, April 18, 2012, marked a day when another two women had their first pop-up stand, also involving loaves (minus the oyster, mind you), at Bread Srsly’s first market.

Our first market, our first legit cargo bike (thanks to the gentlemen mechanics at Pedal Revolution), and our first real lunch menu for over 400 hungry, happy lunch-seekers.

As the sun rose, coffee was dripped, muffins were baked and fresh gluten-free sourdough for sandwiches was toasted, assembled, sliced, and packed up.  Bags and boxes were stamped and our two noble steeds were loaded with:

• 50 sandwiches (vegan, vegetarian and carnivorous options)
• 64 apple rose mini muffins and
• 48 muffins
• 2 loaves of herb garlic sourdough, sliced and cubed for sampling
• 20 pieces of lemon coconut shortbread
• 10 pounds of organic mandarins
• 50 to-go sandwich bento boxes
• 2 tablecloths and matching/not-matching cloth napkins
• menu corkboard
• miscellaneous stamped paper bags and other not-so-interesting details
• Nikon D-80 camera with 50mm lens
• 2 huge smiles

We rolled out of the original Bread Srsly HQ in Cole Valley at 10am and arrived at the Williams Sonoma market at 151 Union Street 35 minutes later. With our stand set up in a hot minute, our first customer was Ms. Lisa, the market organizer.  She discovered the little bread-by-bike-bakery-that-could almost two months ago in our game-changing write-up in Daily Candy.

From 11:30 to 2, the steady flow of new faces, samplers, questions, and customers made lunchtime fly by.  We were elated to meet so many new people, sell out entirely, and leave the market with a significantly lighter bike ride home.

A huge thanks to our current customers who came for a visit (see D. Shapiro), Kristin of VeloVogue for the lovely post-market write-up of this bike-bread duo, Uri and the boys at Pedal Revolution for the use of their shop SOMA cargo bike, Lisa at Williams-Sonoma for the invitation to market, and the countless friends and friendly strangers for their kind words of encouragement and support.