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Twenty years in, the Bay Area artisanal bakery is turning its celebration outward with Perfect Pairings, a season-long project built on honest craft, local partnerships, and the belief that good things happen when people come together.
Early on a weekday morning in Sonoma County, the air inside Rustic Bakery’s production kitchen is rich with warm butter, toasted flour, and sea salt. Sheets of dough get brushed with olive oil, scattered with sel gris, and baked until each flatbread breaks with a clean snap.
These are not crackers designed to steal the show. They are built to hold up whatever lands on them: a spoonful of soft cheese, a slice of ripe pear, a dollop of something local. That idea has shaped the company since its first year, and it sits at the center of Perfect Pairings, the initiative Rustic Bakery has planned for California Wine Month this September.
The bakery marked 20 years in business last October. Instead of throwing itself a party, it handed the microphone to other people, inviting chefs, cheesemakers, and food writers to build their own perfect bite around Rustic Bakery products and cheeses from the creameries that helped the company find its footing. This year, the pairing partner changes from cheese to wine, and the spotlight moves further from the brand itself and onto the growers and producers of Napa and Sonoma counties.
Rustic Bakery started in Marin County as a small operation supplying local cheesemongers and shipped its first cases of sourdough flatbread in 2005. Two decades later it runs a production facility in Sonoma County, operates five cafés in Marin, and distributes nationwide to a customer base that stretches well past the Bay Area. A surprising amount has stayed put: The flatbreads are still fermented like bread rather than mixed like a conventional cracker; they are still baked by hand; and they are still made with pairing in mind rather than snacking alone.
That versatility is the whole point. A flatbread has to be sturdy enough to carry a generous wedge of cheese, quiet enough not to argue with a glass of wine, and good enough to eat standing at the counter straight from the package. A product built to complement rather than compete makes a natural anchor for a food-and-wine collaboration.
In Northern California, the line between the food business and the wine business has never been especially firm. A bottle rarely shows up on its own. There is usually cheese involved, or bread, or a crisp sourdough flatbread in the pairing mix.
That overlap is what prompted Perfect Pairings. Rustic Bakery has been part of the region’s food landscape for years, and being based in Sonoma County means watching the current moment up close. Winemakers across the North Coast are navigating a period that many in the industry describe as one of the most challenging in recent memory, with softening demand, high costs, and fruit going unsold.
So this year the bakery is pointing its collaborations at the wineries around it, working with a group of Napa and Sonoma producers on pairings meant to show off both sides of the table. Some of that work is straightforward, matching a crisp flatbread with a rich, creamy bite. Some of it is fussier, building a savory topping to meet the acidity and structure of a particular vintage.
“Extraordinary things happen when we come together; it’s part of our brand’s DNA,” says Rustic Bakery’s CEO Dan Mader. “Partnerships and community have always been essential building blocks of this business. This year, we wanted to find a way to give back to the community that helped shape us, and to be a catalyst that brings people together around a shared table.”
The pairings roll out through the season across sampling events, social media, and the company’s website. They culminated in a public artisan-inspired tasting on September 16 in Larkspur, California. Visitors were able to taste their way through the collaborations and raise a glass to the region’s winemakers.
The idea of a perfect pairing is an evolution of last year’s 20th anniversary celebration, when the bakery invited 10 culinary tastemakers (chefs, cookbook authors, and creators who share its devotion to quality ingredients and craftsmanship) to create their own version of a perfect bite, pairing Rustic Bakery products with Cowgirl Creamery cheeses in a nod to the partnership that started it all.
Among them was Vincenzo Loseto, a Top Chef contestant and chef de cuisine of the Michelin-starred Press Restaurant in Napa Valley.
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Loseto, whose cooking bridges Italian tradition and modern California produce, grew up in a household where meals were boisterous affairs: platters of grilled vegetables, bowls of ricotta whipped with lemon, loaves of warm bread torn apart by hand. “Food wasn’t about showing off,” he says. “It was about generosity.”
That, he says, is why the bakery approached him. “They wanted dishes that invite people in,” Loseto explains. “Not a performance. A conversation.”
For the project, he created a bite of beef tartare layered with ssamjang, pickles, and Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel cheese atop a Rustic Bakery Black & White Sesame Sourdough Flatbread Bites.
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For Rustic Bakery, longevity has come from refining what works: thoughtful ingredients, careful technique, and foods designed to be shared.
The ingredient lists are intentionally straightforward: organic flour, butter, sea salt, olive oil, herbs, chocolate, and seasonal flavors. But simplicity is not the same as simple. Creating a cracker with the right balance of crispness, texture, and flavor requires the same attention as any baked good.
That approach begins in the kitchen. The company, which describes itself as chef-led, develops its products with the same curiosity and care it brings to its cafés, where breads, pastries, soups, and sandwiches are made for the local community. The result is food that feels equally at home on a restaurant table, a picnic blanket, or a kitchen counter shared with friends.
For anyone heading north of San Francisco, Rustic Bakery’s five cafés are worth building into a day’s itinerary. What’s on the menu? Bread, pastries, quiche, soups, salads, and sandwiches, with stocks made in-house, quiche crusts and sandwich breads baked from scratch, and ingredients sourced locally when the season allows. They function as neighborhood gathering spots and, conveniently, as a first stop before a day in the wine country just beyond.
Not making the trip? The flatbread crackers, crisps, cookies, biscuits, and shortbreads ship nationwide through rusticbakery.com and are stocked by natural-foods grocers, specialty shops, and major online retailers.
Twenty years on, the company is still making the same argument it made with its first cases of flatbread: Simple ingredients, handled with care, are worth the trouble, and they are better in company.
Most of the industry chases the next big thing. Rustic Bakery has stayed interested in the small ones. A shared snack. A good bite. A glass raised to a neighbor.
Makes 10 bites
For the ssamjang: In a bowl, combine 2 ounces gochujang, 4 ounces doenjang, ¼ cup thinly sliced scallions, 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 clove finely chopped garlic, and 4 tablespoons honey. Mix well.
For the pickled cucumbers: Combine 4 ounces white balsamic vinegar, 2 ounces water, 2 ounces sugar, and 2 teaspoons salt in a small pot and bring to a boil. Pour the hot liquid over 2 ounces of cucumber cut into brunoise. Cool and reserve until needed.
For the beef tartare: Mix 2 ounces small-diced beef with 1 tablespoon ssamjang, 2 teaspoons drained pickled cucumber, and 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil. Adjust the seasoning with salt as needed.
To finish: Lay 10 Rustic Bakery Black & White Sesame Flatbread Bites on a wire-rack-lined baking tray. Place a spoonful of tartare on each (about 10 tablespoons total) and cover with grated Cowgirl Creamery Wagon Wheel cheese. Using a torch or the broiler, gently melt the cheese over the tartare, working quickly so the beef doesn't cook. Garnish with thinly sliced scallions and serve.
Notes: Ssamjang and doenjang are available at many specialty grocers and online; if doenjang is unavailable, substitute miso paste. Preferred cuts for the tartare are filet mignon, New York strip, or ribeye. Avoid any large pieces of fat when cutting.