Olde Hearth Bread Company Brings San Francisco Sourdough Starter to New Orlando Storefront

The starter sitting on your counter probably wasn't made with crushed Sonoma grapes in San Francisco. Shannon Talty's was. That culture, which Talty says "came with me from San Francisco" and "was created with crushed grapes from Sonoma," forms the fermentation backbone of Olde Hearth Bread Company's sourdough program; a descendant of that same wild yeast still goes into every sourdough loaf they bake today. This May, the company will bring that lineage directly to Ivanhoe Village, opening a neighborhood storefront at 1231 N. Orange Avenue.

Talty and co-founder Janice Talty built Olde Hearth into Orlando's original artisan bakery, an operation that spent most of its existence supplying restaurants wholesale rather than selling directly to consumers. "Nobody in Orlando was making natural breads when we first opened 28 years ago," Shannon said. "There's a culinary scene now. We're just making it easier for folks to get what they want."

A mid-May opening is expected once renovations at the Ivanhoe Row space are complete, with an official date to be announced when the space is ready. Daily shipments from the main bakery in Casselberry will stock the shelves with sourdough boules, sesame semolina loaves, black olive batards, and French baguettes alongside croissants, chocolate chip cookies, and raspberry tarts. The signature sourdough, which crackles when torn, will be among them. Brewed coffee will also be on offer.

The Ivanhoe location will double as a test kitchen for small-batch development. The Taltys recently acquired a dedicated artisan mixer for the purpose, with ancient grain breads and seasonal pastry recipes among the first categories they plan to explore.

Olde Hearth products currently reach consumers through Whole Foods, Chamberlin's, local farmers' markets, and a licensed café at Orlando International Airport. The Ivanhoe storefront adds a first dedicated retail address in the city, placing that decades-old San Francisco starter within walking distance of the neighborhood it is about to call home.