Featured Buyers
Moxie Bread Co.
Owner: Andy Clark
Locations: Longmont, CO., Lyons, CO., North Boulder, CO.
Products: Breads, Pastries, Flours
Varieties: Wheat: Einkorn, Emmer, Spelt, Kamut, Red Fife, Clark’s Cream, White Sonora, Turkey Red; Rye: Wrens Abruzzi, Ryman
Suppliers: Belle Valley Ancient Grains, Rocky Draw Farm, Jones Farms Organics, Stephen’s Land & Cattle, Golden Organics
About: Moxie Bread Co. is a community bakery and café located in Louisville, Colorado. They use 100% organic, freshly-milled, heritage grains in all of their products and source directly from local and regional farmers. The bakery is owned by two-time James Beard-nominated baker, Andy Clark, and it is largely considered the cornerstone of the local grain community. The flagship location specializes in freshly-baked breads, pastries, sandwiches, and single-origin coffee.
Before starting Moxie, Clark was in the bread business for over two decades. He spent 15 of them as a bakery manager, overseeing daily operations and growth strategy efforts at Whole Foods. He went on to serve as the Chief Operations Officer at Udi’s Artisan Bakery for a few years, all the while dreaming of opening his own bakery café. In March of 2015, Clark found the perfect location to make his dream a reality. He set up shop in a historic, 19th-century home on Louisville’s main street, and since then the surrounding community has consistently shown up to support the bakery. It’s become a beloved local spot for breakfast, lunch, community gatherings, music nights, pizza nights, and more. Moxie has seen so much success that they’ve recently been able to expand to two more locations—a mill site in North Boulder (Moxie Feed & Seed) and a second shop in Lyons (Moxie Mercantile).
Clark’s central mission at Moxie is to nourish his neighbors and cultivate community through food. He bakes with heirloom grains as the primary means of achieving this goal, using them in combination with a slow fermentation process to make his breads easier to digest for customers with gluten sensitivities. The result is a bakery that invites all kinds of consumers in to experience the superior flavor and nutritional quality of ancient and heritage grains..
Pastificio
Owners: Ted Steen & Claudia Bouvier
Location: Boulder, CO.
Products: Organic Heritage Pastas
Varieties: Iraqui Durum, Kamut, Blue Emmer, Turkey Red, Bluebeard Durum, Pueblo White, Spelt
Suppliers: Aspen Moon Farm, Bob Quinn/Kamut® International, Golden Organics, Rocky Draw Farm, Central Milling
About: Pastificio Boulder is a artisanal pasta company located in Boulder, Colorado that specializes in organic, whole grain pastas made from freshly milled heritage wheat. The company was founded by Claudia Bouvier and Ted Steen, a couple passionate about real food that nourishes people and reconnects us to the earth and each other.
Claudia grew up in a large Italian family, and she has always loved Italian culture. She has many memories of the delicious, fresh pastas from her childhood, and before starting Pastificio she spent many years trying out pasta making—she even took classes right in Italy! Claudia got the idea for the business while she was pursuing her Master’s in Engineering at CU Boulder and had to design a business to launch for a project. Ted jokingly suggested she try to launch a pasta shop—and that’s exactly what she did. Claudia joined Catalyze, CU’s business incubator program, and started developing a business plan for artisanal, health-minded pasta production.
At the same time, Ted was growing interested in sustainability and the impact that the industrial food system has on consumer and environmental health. He had been experiencing gluten sensitivity for years, and his interest piqued when he learned about the digestibility, nutritional benefits, and superior flavor profile of ancient and heritage varieties of wheat. Inspired, Ted and Claudia began to investigate how to use heritage grains in a pasta business. Pastificio was born, and they officially launched in 2018. Since then, the business has grown rapidly, and Pastificio’s pastas are now flying off the shelves in their shop, at the Boulder County Farmers Market, and in Whole Foods across the Rocky Mountain region.
Dry Storage
Owner: Kelly Whitaker
Location: Boulder, CO.
Products: Breads, Pastries, Flours
Varieties: Wheat: Rouge De Bordeaux, White Sonora, Yecora Rojo, Oberkulmer Spelt; Rye: Wrens Abruzzi
Suppliers: Jones Farms Organics, Rocky Draw Farm
About: Dry Storage is an artisan mill and bakery located in Boulder, Colorado. It is part of a group of restaurants in the Front Range known as the IE Hospitality Group, which also includes the Wolf’s Tailor, Bruto, and Basta and is owned by James Beard-nominated chef Kelly Whittaker. Dry Storage in particular specializes in freshly milled ancient and heritage flour (used primarily at each of IE’s restaurants), as well as breads and pastries.
The concept for Dry Storage began in 2010 when chef Whittaker was on the hunt for high-quality, regional flour for the wood-fired pizzas at Basta. Finding few options, he co-founded the Noble Grain Alliance in 2016 to support the revitalization of local heirloom grains through farming, milling, and distribution. Noble Grain Alliance then worked with local farmers to plant and trial 16 acres of Turkey Red wheat, and milled the grains for IE’s restaurants in the location that is now the Dry Storage bakery. For a few years, the site served as a mill and commissary kitchen for IE’s other restaurants and made doughs, pastries, and breads. In 2019, the site opened to the public as the Dry Storage bakehouse to expand IE’s pastry and bread programs. In early 2020, they moved and expanded their milling operation to a separate commercial facility in northeast Boulder.
Overall, Whittaker’s goal with Dry Storage is to move away from the mainstream notion that whole grain bread is bitter, dry, and bland, while white bread is delicious but lacking in nutrition. He wants to flip consumer’s understanding of what white breads can be, providing a nutritious, delicious, and whole grain option for everyone—beyond those who regularly seek out whole grain breads. His goal is to showcase organic, heirloom, regenerative wheats by leading with deliciousness and making them into something that everyone wants to eat.