Meet the Bakery Putting Sausalito Sourdough on the Map

Sheree Bishop, Communications Coordinator
April 25, 2025

After returning from the United Kingdom to his houseboat in Sausalito, Sam Schwartz started baking bread with the intention of opening a bakery inspired by his time in Europe. At the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, Portside Bakery offers a wide variety of sourdough bread and unique pastries made with seasonal and fresh ingredients.

Making Landfall: Returning to America and Learning from Experience

In 2012, Sam quit his job and moved to London while his girlfriend (now his wife), Amanda, was studying there. To him, their time living abroad presented a romanticized idea of how they could live, and allowed them the space to think about what kind of work they both wanted to do. They both found that, over time, they frequented a lot of small and local bakeries in the area, and the famed e5 Bakehouse in particular. 

The more time they spent in London, the more Sam and Amanda grew familiar with the bakers, baristas, and chefs at their local restaurants. “We just loved having those relationships, and we loved imagining that we could be on the other side of it, providing a small, intimate space in that very European way. We were definitely two Americans romanticizing what it would be like to come back and start that business,” Sam says. 

When he came back to the US, he was insistent on learning from people who were already successful bakers. “The food industry is really special in that you can be an apprentice without a whole lot of experience. I love that, in exchange for putting in your sweat equity, you gain secret recipes and skills that have to be taught with muscle memory.”

In the span of a year, Sam staged with local bakers, swept floors, and worked his way up to becoming head baker, all while making sourdough in the Dutch oven of his home. Once he’d gained the knowledge he needed, Sam founded Portside Bakery in 2017.

“When I started the business, I had to work out of shared kitchens far from Sausalito,” Sam says, “About three years in, we were able to find our way back and build out a kitchen space here. It’s a block away from where we live on the houseboats now. The name kind of comes from that.”

Creating the Right Environment for High-Quality Bread and Pastries

A majority of Portside’s employees gain their experience on the job, rather than having formal culinary training. When Sam started Portside, he approached hiring from the same perspective in which he’d gained his own experience. “The people that I wanted to seek out are people who showed earnest desire, interest, and work ethic. We’re much more open to teaching someone like that than someone who just has the credentials, but maybe not the same desire or work ethic.”

Finding passionate people to join his team allows for Portside to operate in unique ways that draw on the interests of everyone involved in its operation. Besides the permanent staples and classics, Portside Bakery comes up with new and seasonal items with a more community-based approach than one might expect, letting staff take more ownership of the menu. Whenever a staff member gets a new idea, the team starts testing their recipe, using what’s in season at the farmers market as a starting point. Then, everyone eats it and gives feedback. After the first taste test, more feedback is given until the item is ready for the market.

“It’s a fairly democratic process and one that I don’t really control, to be honest,” Sam says. “I think it’s been important for us as a bakery to really focus on our people, and that guides a lot of our principles.”’

Sustainable Sourdough: Preventing Food Waste and Preserving Community

Along with prioritizing their people, Portside Bakery emphasizes sustainability in their practices. For example, off-cuts from their laminated pastries are used to make their popular bostock (a soaked brioche, usually topped with nuts and seasonal fruit) and croissant loaves. “We found ways to create something really beautiful with what would otherwise be food waste,” Sam says.

Finding creative ways to use farm-fresh produce and workshopping each item through team input contributes to their unique selection of products. As the seasons change, farmers market shoppers can expect fruit-filled danishes, chewy pretzels stuffed with a variety of savory fillings, seasonal puffins in flavors like passionfruit and yuzu lychee, and unique sourdough loaves in flavors like Masa and Gruyère French Onion.

With only 10 people on the team, one of the strengths of Portside is its small size. Rather than being fixated on scaling, Sam is focused on his people and the food they make. As a result, their reach comes through word of mouth. In the same way that Sam and his wife got to know the bakers in their neighborhood, farmers market shoppers in Marin and San Francisco have gotten to know Portside and its people face to face. 

In joining the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, Sam initially thought that, because the Ferry Building is a popular tourist attraction, it would similarly bring a large amount of people from outside the Bay Area.

“I was put in my place in a great way when I found that there is such a core group of locals that show up to these markets and make them what they are,” Sam says. “We know their names, they come every week, and I love all the personalities and people who have been coming for 20 years to the farmers market. It’s not what I expected at all, and it’s been really refreshing and great to find that. This is exactly why we do it.”

Visit Portside Bakery on Thursdays and Saturdays at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Topics: Culinary, Entrepreneurship, Farmers market, Food makers, Small business