UT classmates turn sourdough hobby into weekly bread business

Sydney Stewart and Nicolas Montoya met in 2024 as UT Austin classmates, then turned a shared baking habit into Stoya Bread & Co., a neighborhood bread business that now pulls sourdough fans, nearby residents and students to a weekly shed stocked with fresh loaves, English muffins and cookies. The name itself folds both founders into one label, and the operation has become a real part of Austin’s bread scene, not just a campus side project.

The business runs on repetition, which is exactly why it has traction. Stewart, a sustainability studies major with a minor in entrepreneurship, and Montoya, a mechanical engineering major, built Stoya around weekly restocks and a self-serve setup that uses the honor system for payment. The shed has operated at 619 W. 35th St. near the University of Texas at Austin campus, and early mornings were part of the routine from the start, with Friday baking beginning at 3 a.m.

That kind of demand showed up quickly. On one August morning, the bread shed sold out in under half an hour, and another opening went in about 20 minutes. KXAN said the setup near Guadalupe Street offered six sourdough options at the time, a sign that Stoya was already moving past a single-loaf hobby and into a microbakery with a real local following.

The menu also grew in a practical way. Stewart and Montoya added English muffins and cookies alongside the bread, leaning on a cookie recipe they had already made enough times to trust. That mattered, because a sellable bread business needs more than good fermentation; it needs products that are repeatable, fast to move and easy to scale without losing the sourdough identity. When they had excess inventory, they donated surplus bread to people experiencing homelessness, and a viral video helped push more attention and preorders their way.

The next step is bigger than one shed. Stewart and Montoya have said they want to expand through additional bread sheds across Austin and by showing up at local farmers markets, while Montoya plans to work full time in HVAC and still help grow Stoya. UT held its 143rd spring commencement for the Class of 2026 on May 10, 2026, which makes this feel like a graduation-era business story as much as a bakery profile. What began as two Longhorns baking together in 2024 now has the kind of weekly sellout rhythm that says Austin has room for a sourdough brand built on familiarity, not hype.