Meet the Baker: Salt & Palm Bakehouse

Some bakers come to sourdough through a grandmother's kitchen. The baker behind Salt & Palm Bakehouse came to it through the ocean. A Fort Lauderdale surfer who started feeding a starter between swells, they now turn long, patient ferments into some of the most sought-after loaves in Broward County.

The throughline is restraint — a little more time, a little less fuss, and a finishing pinch of flaky sea salt on almost everything. The flagship Sea Salt Sourdough is exactly that idea in a single loaf: an open, custardy crumb under a crackling, salt-flecked crust.

Not everything here is a lean loaf, though. The bakehouse's cult item is the Guava & Cream Cheese Babka — an enriched dough twisted with ribbons of guava and cream cheese so that every slice shows the swirl. It is the loaf people message about when it sells out.

The coastal ferment

Florida's heat is a complication most bread books never mention. Doughs move faster in a warm kitchen, and the baker has learned to work with that rather than against it — shorter counter times, cooler water, and a close eye on the dough instead of the clock.

Ask how a surfer ends up obsessing over crumb structure, and the answer is pure Salt & Palm:

The ocean taught me you cannot rush a set. Bread is the same — you read it, you wait for it, and you take what it gives you that day.

That babka swirl is the part newcomers always ask about. It looks complicated and mostly is not; the whole trick is in the twist. If you have never watched an enriched loaf shaped, this is the move that makes the marbled slice:

What to order first

• Sea Salt Sourdough — the flagship, and the fastest way to understand the whole operation.
• Guava & Cream Cheese Babka — the one that sells out; order early.
• Coconut Banana Bread — a little tropical, a lot of comfort.

Salt & Palm bakes to a schedule and sells out fast, so watch the drop calendar and get your order in before the cut-off. Coastal sourdough this good does not sit around.