Wildgrain Opens First Brick-and-Mortar Bakehouse in Somerville, Spotlighting Slow-Fermented Sourdough

Wildgrain celebrated a full-circle moment on March 5 with the opening of the Wildgrain Bakehouse at Somernova, 29R Properzi Way in Somerville, its first brick-and-mortar flagship and the first location in the country to sell individual bake-at-home frozen breads and pastries without a membership. The Somerville site will operate as a neighborhood café and a test kitchen, offering warm items straight from the oven alongside a freezer stocked with par-baked products customers can take home.

Co-founders Johanna Hartzheim and Ismail Salhi, Somerville residents who met in Paris and moved to the U.S., started Wildgrain in Hartzheim’s kitchen before building a direct-to-consumer membership business. Hartzheim said, "It's incredible that all of this started in my little kitchen in Somerville, teaching myself to make the breads I loved in Paris. Now we're thrilled to create a space where neighbors can experience our products warm from the oven and, for the very first time, pick up our frozen bake-at-home breads and pastries one loaf at a time, no membership needed."

The bakehouse menu lists Wildgrain’s famous sourdough, warm croissants and loaves, signature chocolate chunk cookies in standard, gluten-free and vegan recipes, and rotating seasonal items such as Maple Belgian Waffles, with coffee served on site. The company also plans to offer its broader lineup in-store: pizzas, grilled cheese, cookie dough, pasta and other artisan pastries, all available from the bakehouse freezer for non-subscribers to bring home. Monthly members receive exclusive in-store savings and a free cup of coffee once a day, and Wildgrain’s website promotes an in-person benefit called the Wildgrain Wallet, a 15 percent lifetime discount at the bakehouse.

Wildgrain’s operational pitch centers on par-baked, freeze-at-peak-freshness products that finish at home. Company copy states the items "go from freezer to oven in 25 minutes or less with no thawing, allowing even novice bakers to produce bakery-quality results at home." Hartzheim described the in-home finish in conversational terms to local reporters, saying croissants can be ready in "30 minutes or less" and that the result "tastes perfectly fresh, as if you baked it all at once." Local reporting also notes shipments arrive frozen, packed with dry ice and recyclable gel packs, and that some loaves are baked halfway then frozen so customers finish baking at home.

Wildgrain has grown quickly online: PR Newswire and PerishableNews say the company "has grown to serve more than 150,000 monthly members nationwide," while Wildgrain’s own site and Wickedlocal reference "over 100,000" members, and multiple outlets report Wildgrain ships roughly 1.2 million boxes annually. The company describes itself on its site as a small team based in Boston focused on slow-fermented sourdough and artisanal techniques, including claiming breads are slow-fermented for 20+ hours versus 20 minutes for store-bought.

The Somernova bakehouse positions Wildgrain as a local hub for its frozen craft and in-person testing of new products in Union Square’s innovation campus, with founders returning to the neighborhood where the business began. For press inquiries, the company listed press@wilgrain.com in its release.