Most Americans eat cold bread. Ismail Salhi and Johanna Hartzheim are changing that dynamic one loaf at a time.

Ismail and Johanna are the founders of Wildgrain, a subscription-based service that ships boxes of par-baked frozen sourdough, pastries and hand-cut pasta to customers across the country.

The married couple and business partners came to the U.S. after years of living in Paris and wanted to give people access to the same warm loaves of artisanal breads, flaky croissants and chewy dinner rolls they ate daily in France. 

Wildgrain partners with local bakers across the U.S. to produce its products, which are made with no preservatives, no artificial flavors and no bleached flour. No thawing is required. Just a few minutes in the oven is all you need to make fresh, warm bread.

Since Ismail and Johanna launched Wildgrain in 2020 at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become one of the most successful food delivery companies in America generating $30 million in revenue last year and turning profitable. 

How did Wildgrain achieve its position and why does the company’s trajectory continue to rise? The throughline has always been an extremely high level of customer service, according to Ismail, who we spoke with for an interview featured in this episode of Taste Radio.

Show notes:

0:35: Ismail Salhi, Co-Founder, Wildgrain – Ismail talks about the growing number of artisanal bakeries in urban neighborhoods, including his own and why “the delicious window” makes all the difference when baking and buying bread. He also discusses he and Joanna’s decision to launch Wildgrain after shutting down their previous business, how they convinced a tech investor to buy into their new concept, and why they shifted focus after originally planning to build a vertically integrated company. Ismail also explains why being obsessed with your existing customer base is key to a subscription-based model, how Wildgrain has created a network of suppliers that provide consistent quality (if not taste), how they kept customers happy when things went wrong with deliveries early in the company’s development, and why customer service is embedded in Wildgrain’s marketing strategy. Ismail also talks about how the company achieved profitability three years after its launch, mitigating a potential plateauing of its subscription model and why Wildgrain doesn’t hire “until it’s painful.”

Brands in this episode: Wildgrain, RXBAR, David, Lesser Evil, AG1