Wildgrain Bakehouse

Sourdough that finishes in your oven

The counter runs on a freezer-to-oven idea: long-fermented sourdough, laminated pastry and hand-cut pasta, par-baked and flash-frozen so the last few minutes happen at home. Wildgrain Bakehouse is the Somerville retail face of Wildgrain, the bakery and delivery company founded by Johanna Hartzheim and Ismail Salhi after they moved from Paris to Somerville in 2015 and found the local bread culture unlike the boulangeries they knew. Hartzheim brought German roots shaped by hearty whole-wheat breads and grains, plus pastry-baking experience; Salhi brought Algerian influences and the operating role that turned an idea into a national subscription. A private sourdough class and a thirty-year-old starter set the project going in early 2020.

A daytime bakehouse in Somerville

The shop is the in-person side of a much larger baking system. Wildgrain first produced in a commercial space in Woburn, then scaled by working with small independent bakeries around the country to par-bake, flash-freeze and ship breads, pastries and pastas. The Somerville room turns that into retail, with frozen craft products beside fresh-baked warm croissants, loaves and cookies. The philosophy is plain and repeated: unbleached stone-ground flours, organic where possible, no chemical preservatives, emulsifiers or high fructose corn syrup, and fermentation that can run 36 hours. That slowness is the point, set deliberately against industrial supermarket loaves. This is not a restaurant but a bakery built around sourdough and a home oven finishing the job.

Order the croissant first, then take bread home

Start with a croissant, the item closest to the centre of the story: laminated, buttery, and baked off in the shop rather than carried out frozen. Then move to the sourdough. The catalogue shows the range the counter draws on, from sesame, plain and cranberry sourdough to demi-baguettes, ciabatta and sourdough dinner rolls, all tied to long fermentation and short ingredient lists. Cookies are the other core order, especially the giant chocolate chunk. Sweet pastry runs to blueberry biscuits, pumpkin cinnamon rolls, apple bites, triple berry galette and classic cheesecake, while the savory side takes in hand-cut pastas such as tonnarelli, fettuccine and seasonal ravioli made with organic free-range eggs and Italian semolina. Slow-churned French butter and single-origin olive oil round out the same bread-centred shelf. Each new subscription also sends six donated meals to the Greater Boston Food Bank, which ties the Somerville counter back to the wider business behind it.