Hard Head Bread is the best bread on the Mendocino Coast, and you have to know how to get it. There is no storefront. Jesse Stenberg bakes long-fermented sourdough to order from a cottage kitchen in Fort Bragg two days a week, and the loaves go to the people who ordered them, to a Friday pickup table at Fog Bottle Shop in Mendocino, and to the kitchens of most of the restaurants on this site.
Jesse grew up in Fort Bragg and learned to bake at Grand Central Bakery in Portland, starting in 2002, then at bakeries on the Central Coast before coming home. He and Maria Flynn started Hard Head Bread in December 2022 with a county cottage-food permit, locally grown and organic flours, and a stubborn idea: naturally leavened bread that ordinary people can afford to eat every day. The crust is dark and very crisp; the crumb is soft and open; the flavor comes from a long, slow fermentation rather than from anything added.
The standing lineup is the country loaf (as a table loaf or a sandwich pan loaf), a seeded wheat levain, baguettes, and sourdough bagels. Tuesdays bring focaccia and a strawberry galette; Fridays bring English muffins and a durum polenta loaf. There are rye cookies – triple chocolate and ginger – that are reason enough to place an order. Soft pretzels can be arranged.
If you would rather not plan ahead, you can eat the bread around town: at Floyd and Connie’s and Huck’s Sliderhouse in Fort Bragg, at GoodLife Cafe and Headlands Coffeehouse, and at Corners of the Mouth in Mendocino. But a warm loaf picked up on a Friday afternoon at Fog Bottle Shop, with a glass of something from the shop, is the proper way to meet it.
Great for the Family, Local Wine
Fort Bragg, CA 95437 (pickup address comes with your order)
Mendocino pickup: Fog Bottle Shop, 45104 Main Street, Fridays
www.hardheadbread.com
Bakes Tuesday and Friday; order online ahead