Jim Lahey, the owner of Sullivan St Bakery, originally planned to spend his life as a sculptor. His passion for art and natural beauty took him to Italy, where he found a new medium for that sculptor's urge: bread. Inspired by the bakers of Tuscany and Rome, he returned to New York City determined that the "peasant" bread of the Italian countryside could find a home in America.
In 1994, he started Sullivan St Bakery in Soho, with little more than the wild yeast he cultivated by hand in Italy, and a passion for bringing the exquisite, handcrafted breads of Italy to the American table.