When Oat Bakery suddenly became the darling of Santa Barbara’s bread scene about six years ago, no one was more surprised than founders Louise and Lou Fontana. The couple were merely indulging a fondness for breads from her native Denmark, but their homemade renditions made for brisk pop-up sales at the Juice Ranch, which led to a tiny brick-and-mortar shop on West Haley Street.
“In the beginning, we were just playing bakery,” said Louise, who moved to Santa Barbara to be with Lou in 2016, the year after they met in a Florida bar. “My mom would teach me how to bake over Facetime. I had never baked anything in my life at the time.”
Last fall, this out-of-the-blue bakery took the next step: opening a wholesale operation from a large kitchen in Old Town Goleta, which allows them to better serve loyal locals with two locations while expanding into delivery for customers far beyond Santa Barbara. They’re also selling prepared sandwiches, toasts, soups, and salads in the airy space on Magnolia Avenue during the daytime hours, hosting occasional classes with guest bakers, and planning to break into special dinners down the road.