Good Bread is Love Made Visible
In the heart of Spokane, you can find a really good loaf of bread at a small bakery called Rind And Wheat.
There’s something about the simplicity of a really good sourdough loaf that ignites the senses: the smells as it bakes; the warm crust under your fingertips; the slight tang on the tongue. Those sensory delights are made even better by the knowledge that whoever made that loaf had to pay their dues and earn their stripes, as good sourdough doesn’t often reveal its secrets to a novice. Some restaurants can create astoundingly complex dishes, but encountering a really good, simple loaf of sourdough lets you know that you’re in the presence of a true craftsman.
In the heart of Spokane, you can find a really good loaf of bread at a small bakery called Rind And Wheat. Owner Ricky Webster and his team make more than just sourdough, obviously, but the sourdough acts as the proverbial canary in this coal mine, warning each customer that these guys really know what they’re doing.
"I just can't get enough of everything here," one customer said. "The chocolate croissants, breakfast pizzas … but the artisan loaves are just really amazing. It's one of those places where you just wanna keep coming back, and I'm here pretty much every week."
According to Webster, that appeal is no accident. All the offerings in the pastry case are baked with local ingredients, and the friendly vibe is intended to invite customers inside to sample some of the goods. Many customers linger, sampling different pastries and cheeses until they find the perfect combination.
"Everything is made fresh every single morning, so a lot of times, that smell will draw people in," said Webster. "They'll see that pastry case, but then they'll turn the corner and they'll be like, 'Oh, you have cheese, and you have wine, and well … I don't need to go anywhere else today.'"
Some of the customers at Rind And Wheat refer to him as a celebrity, but Ricky's journey to becoming a beloved baker wasn't entirely a straightforward path.
"If you would've asked me five years ago, I never wanted to own a bakery," Ricky said, chuckling. But he speaks often of his family and learning to love bread and cheese from his mom and grandma. "I love to celebrate those things. We really wanna take what's in our closest footprint – our local ingredients. I want to provide just that little taste of something unique."
