The first time Rey Sumano, 49, sampled sourdough bread he hated it. It was…well, sour….and he was expecting it to be sweet, like a French loaf.
But after working in bakeries that specialized in the historically artisan bread that takes 24 hours to prepare and bake, he came to love it. It became his favorite bread and a huge breadwinner for what has become a $6.5 million-a-year family business.
Today he makes 3 million loaves of sourdough a year at his Watsonville and Los Angeles bakeries. He said this week he’s about to move his headquarters to Gilroy at 7050 Monterey Road just north of 10th Street, a building that once housed the Farmhouse Brewery and Diamond Doors.
At 23,500 square feet, the new site is more than double the size of his current location in Watsonville. Sumano said he spent $2 million on it, planning to double his business, which now has 65 workers. He’ll spend another million dollars getting it up to code for food preparation and adding a retail outlet.
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