Bread that takes three days. Gone by 2:30.
Grateful Bread is a family-owned artisan bakery in Golden. We mill organic grain on an Austrian stone mill, ferment slowly with a 26-year-old wild starter, and shape every loaf by hand.
No shortcuts, no additives, no rushing the dough.
We don’t use yeast accelerants, dough conditioners, preservatives or “improvers.” We write our own formulas, keep a separate starter for each dough, and give every bread the time it needs to develop its crust, crumb and character.
Bread is alive. Many of ours take up to three days from mix to bake, using freshly milled organic flour, honey from a three-generation Colorado beekeeping family, and milk, eggs and butter from a local dairy.
From the Saturday shelf
Several sourdoughs every week, plus pastries, pretzels and stone-ground grits. The lineup rotates — Friday’s newsletter lists the specials.
Country Boule
Our 26-year-old starter with locally grown whole wheat and pumpernickel milled in-house. Cold fermented 18 hours for an airy interior and crisp golden crust.
Rosemary Sea Salt Sourdough
Fresh rosemary and coarse sea salt over slow-fermented sourdough.
Chocolate Babka
Thick chunks of Belgian dark chocolate. 5280 called it the best in town.
French Baguette
Long fermentation, crackling crust from the stone hearth.
Rosemary Focaccia
Olive oil, fresh rosemary and sea salt on a soft, airy crumb.
How a loaf gets made
The same old-world process, every loaf, every day.
- Day one
Mill
Organic heirloom grain from Colorado farmers is cold-milled on our pine stone mill.
- Day one
Feed the starter
Each dough has its own starter, kept at the temperature and humidity it likes.
- Days one to three
Ferment
Long, slow fermentation pulls the full flavor out of the grain.
- Day three
Shape by hand
Everyone works “at the tables,” shaping each loaf and bun by hand.
- Day three
Stone hearth bake
Baked to a deep crust, then onto the shelf or to Shamrock’s freezer.
It started with one wooden table, one mixer and a battered six-tray oven in a 400 sq ft cabin.
After a historic blizzard and a sinking economy closed their restaurant, chef Jeff Cleary and his wife Kathy Mullen started over in 2005 — Jeff working 110-hour weeks, Kathy holding down two and three jobs. Today Grateful Bread fills nearly 8,000 sq ft in Golden.
Read our storyVoted Denver’s best, again and again
All press & awards
- 2021Denver Business Journal Small Business of the Year
- 2021Westword Readers’ Choice, Best Bakery
- 2020ColoradoBiz Made in Colorado, Best Food & Beverage Manufacturer
Serving restaurants across Colorado, Wyoming and Montana
Our breads are available wholesale exclusively through Shamrock Foods — baked, flash-frozen at -30° and delivered. No preservatives means they thaw with the crust just as crisp.
Come see us Saturday
- Where
- 425 Violet St., Bldg. 4
Golden, CO 80401 - From Denver
- About 15 minutes straight west on 6th Ave.
- Parking
- Plenty of free parking in our lot
- Veterans
- 15% off every Saturday with military ID
Get Friday’s specials in your inbox
Weekly specials every Friday, a heads-up Saturday when the line dies down, and our members-only shop day before Thanksgiving.
You’re on the list. Watch for Friday’s email.