Walking into Ben’s Bread feels like settling into a grandmother’s kitchen: it radiates cozy.

Some customers chat with each other as they eat sourdough croissants on lush couches by a fireplace, and others sip home-brewed coffee on a long wooden dining table, a half-forgotten bagel beside them as they escape into a book. Last time I visited, a father played trains with his son on the floor.

“I’ve always loved cooking. I’ve always had this vision of creating a special restaurant experience…as soon as baking bread gripped me, the idea of opening a bakery was inevitable. But I had to work out how to do it first,” Ben Rosairo, the owner of and baker behind Ben’s Bread, recounted. 

Rosairo’s journey to “Ben’s Bread” started in perhaps an unexpected place: with a suspected gluten intolerance. For a long time, Rosairo simply gave up all wheat products. Until, that is, he discovered sourdough.

“I moved into an apartment opposite of a sourdough bakery—I couldn’t resist trying their bread. I found that I could eat it without any problems.” At the same time, he started watching The Great British Bake-Off. “The combination sowed some kind of seed in me that wouldn’t go away.” 

At the time, the Rosairos lived in the UK, but not long after, they moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for his wife’s job. Moving across the sea didn’t kill the dream, even if it killed his initial sourdough starter. “I made a new starter, and I started making bread every day, obsessively, slowly figuring it all out.” 

After about three years of experimenting, Rosairo finally felt ready to share his bread with Tuscaloosa. He started with a farmer’s market stall. “The first market I took just eighteen loaves… I sold out in thirty minutes.” 

The hardest part was keeping up with the demand. But Rosairo found a way: soon enough, he was making forty loaves, fifty croissants, and ninety bagels, plus bombolone (Italian doughnuts). Still, with preorders, he was often sold out before he even arrived. 

The most important thing he made, however, was not a loaf of bread, but a community of committed customers. It wasn’t long before people were asking when he would go brick-and-mortar.

When he felt ready, Rosairo launched a Kickstarter. “I felt quite vulnerable and uncomfortable asking for help.” Part of the reason he chose Kickstarter over other platforms was the ability to reward pledges. Rewards ranged from deliveries of baked goods to one-on-one sourdough classes to naming his starter. He felt better about this setup, and evidently his patrons liked it too— 170 backers came together to donate $32,925 (well over his stated goal of $30,000). This community still helps out with the bakery today, with “furniture, mugs, fixing things, and giving advice. It’s an amazing community that continues to grow.” 

After lots of hard work, the bakery settled into a small white house on the east side of Tuscaloosa. The warm, gentle design was very much on purpose. “We wanted to create peaceful, cozy, and inclusive environment where everyone can feel at home. We are so lucky our building was available just when we needed it.” 

The bakery is also forward-looking: “We care about the environment, the health of our community and the planet.” They do their best to reduce waste and avoid plastic, and Rosairo uses exclusively simple organic ingredients. They especially value community, inclusivity, and diversity, which “are at the heart of our bakery.”

Their offerings are now broader and ever-changing; their Instagram (@bensbreadtuscaloosa) is the best way to stay up to date. I can personally vouch for the mushroom, onion, and jalapeno pizza. 

When asked if he had any tips on getting a sourdough starter going in Alabama, his answer perhaps said more about his skill than anything else:  “It’s easy… it just takes flour, water, and patience.”