where it all began
We started out as a bread delivery service, dropping loaves at people's doors the way a milkman once did. Along the way we kept seeing what our customers made with that bread, and some of it was genuinely wonderful.
NOT JUST A MARKETING WORD.
Why we call ourselves Friendly?
Hi, Lane here, the Founder and CEO of A Friendly Bread. Sometimes a business outgrows a name; but sometimes it grows further into it.
When I began playing around with sourdough bread recipes back in 2017, I assembled a group of friends, including my husband, to receive sample loaves each weekend and provide feedback. My husband was my toughest critic (maybe he didn't want me to go into business with a bad product...). So when I finally hit upon a recipe that worked, he commented, "Attractive and inviting. A Friendly Bread."
That represented the culmination of the testing process, and it felt like a suitable name for a new business.
Right out the gate, customers always asked why it was called A Friendly Bread. Was it allergen-friendly? (not particularly). was the owner friendly? (Yes, when he didn't have to be up at 4am to set up for the farmers market). Is the product friendly to people with diabetes? (yes, very much so!) or gluten sensitivities? (yes! But not Celiac Disease).
It has also come to describe how we work with you. We sell into large food service accounts, but you can still talk to us one on one, and there is no drawn-out process to start working with us. We are one call away.
And it describes what we make. We use clean ingredients that are kind to your gut, and we keep the products themselves simple and easy to serve.
It refers to our labor practices, environmental practices and more. See below for our commitments learn about it.
Hi, Lane here, the Founder and CEO of A Friendly Bread. Sometimes a business outgrows a name; but sometimes it grows further into it. When I began playing around with sourdough bread recipes back in 2017, I assembled a group of friends, including my husband, to receive sample loaves each weekend and provide feedback. My husband was my toughest critic (maybe he didn't want me to go into business with a bad product...). So when I finally hit upon a recipe that worked, he commented, "Attractive and inviting. A Friendly Bread." That represented the culmination of the testing process, and it felt like a suitable name for a new business. Right out the gate, customers always asked why it was called A Friendly Bread. Was it allergen-friendly? (not particularly). was the owner friendly? (Yes, when he didn't have to be up at 4am to set up for the farmers market). Is the product friendly to people with diabetes? (yes, very much so!) or gluten sensitivities? (yes! But not Celiac Disease). It has also come to describe how we work with you. We sell into large food service accounts, but you can still talk to us one on one, and there is no drawn-out process to start working with us. We are one call away. And it describes what we make. We use clean ingredients that are kind to your gut, and we keep the products themselves simple and easy to serve. It refers to our labor practices, environmental practices and more. See below for our commitments learn about it.
From farmer's market, to now food service and beyond
2024
Began selling our grilled cheeses beyond the grocery aisle, into e-commerce subscription boxes, college/university, and food service.
2025
Private label manufacturing - for cheese brands, bread brands, and others
2026
Launched in coffee chains, more e-Comm subscription boxes, and retail grab-and-go distribution
2016
Bread making, and a lot of experimenting with sourdough
2017
Selling our first loaves out of the house
2018
A farmers market stand, milkman-style bread delivery route, and the year we invented our pre-made grilled cheese, inspired by our cstomers' creations
2020
With the beginning of Covid, we amped up our delivery service and became well-known for our bread
2021
Launched Sourdough Toasts, a gourmet cracker made out of our bread - sold in natural markets and wineries
2022
Launched our grilled cheese with large local and national retailers
2023
Milestone : to 800+ retail locations
We are committed to:
Lane worked as a labor rights organizer before founding A Friendly Bread, fighting the exploitation of workers across our economy. Food industry pay standards aren't great, so we set our own: dignified compensation is both fair and good business.
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Starting wages are $19/hour, and we're working to bring the standard production wage to $25/hour
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Medical (including mental health), dental, and vision insurance for permanent employees, plus 3 weeks of PTO
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40-hour weeks and 2-day weekends, with overtime kept to a rare couple of hours.
We're always looking for new ways to compensate our team with dignity.
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Founder and owner Lane Levine is a gay man who has worked throughout his career to advance LGBT causes. He started as a Student Organizer with GLSEN, fighting anti-LGBT bullying in schools, and later served as Population Health Project Manager at LifeBridge Health, where he led the system to Top Performer status in the Human Rights Campaign's Healthcare Equality Index. Today, A Friendly Bread is a certified LGBT Business Enterprise, which strengthens our business partnerships, earns preferred status in bidding, and raises our public visibility.
Our Sourdough Grilled Cheese is single-serve, but we designed it knowing the alternative is often more wasteful. Making a high-quality grilled cheese yourself means buying a whole loaf of good bread and a whole block of good cheese, and most of both often goes to waste.
We bake a lot of bread, then slice it for a finished product. We love snacking on bread ends and cheese nubs, but we can't keep up. The cows can. We've partnered with local farms for years, and now that production has ramped up, we donate our bread and cheese scraps to feed farm animals. Playtime Pastures is our main partner, with more being added as we grow.
Most frozen snacks come on a tray, inside a bag, inside a box. That's a lot. Ours comes in one bag, made with 50% recycled plastic. That's it.
We make our products totally from scratch, all by ourselves. That means we don’t use any mixes, pre-made doughs, or even any ingredients that allow us to skip steps — like dough conditioners or commercial yeast (we do use a touch of commercial yeast in our challah, but THAT’S IT!) What this also means is that we maintain our own manufacturing operation instead of outsourcing it to a co-manufacturer. This allows us to keep money local by paying good wages to local employees — and keeping profits strong in our business, allowing us to grow into the future.
In the news
Channel 13 WJZ | CBS Baltimore
WJZ | CBS News Baltimore
WBAL TV 11
Entrepreneurious Show
The DMV Business Show with Otto Sevilla
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WJZ, CBS Baltimore
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