Semifreddis

Went here on a tour with Kaiser docs. Great behind the scenes view of their bakery. Huge fan of their kalamata loaf and cinnamon twist bread now. It was also great to learn how much they give back to the local community too!We usually get their products locally at Encinal market or Berkeley bowl.

Their morning buns though! I encountered a box of them through work and had a hard time restraining myself.

As a lover of artisan breads, Semifreddi's is one of my favorite local bakeries. How cool would it be to get a behind the scenes look at how all this delicious bread is made. Our group arranged and was fortunate to get a tour of their World Headquarters and bakery in Alameda's Harbor Bay Business Park. Our group met in the lobby area and met with a coordinator to ensure we adhered to the dress requirements regarding clothing, shoes and jewelry and we were given hairnets to wear for our tour of the bakery plant. No pictures were allowed past the lobby. We were then greeted by Mike Rose, one of the two owners of Semifreddi's. He gave us background of how Semifreddi's came to existence and their eventually move to this current location. We then proceeded to the ingredients warehouse and were joined by Semifreddi's other owner, Tom Franier, to see the large bags of flour and flavorings and the owners talked about how they are source and delivered. We then went onto to the bakery floor to see the how the how the dough was formed and the rising process, baking of the bread in the banks of ovens, packaging of the breads d and how it was prepared for delivery out to the stores. This is a daily process as the breads are baked fresh daily. The owners are passionate about their business. They talked about their business model and their view of taxes, dealings with retailers, and with the political scene. Just say, they made the 1 hour 45 min tour very interesting. At the end, each of us received a gift bag of Semifreddi goodies, which included a baguette, olive bread, cinnamon twist, blueberry croissant, two bags of croutons, tattoo stickers, and café menu from the Kensington bakery shop. Thanks Mike and Tom for the great tour of your great bakery. It was memorable for our group.

I am writing this review as today marks my last day of ever buying a sandwich from their Calusa Shop in Kensington. I arrived there at 2:10 PM to order my go to sandwich which tastes great when they toast it in their Panini Grill. I do know that they close their shop at 3:00 PM so I thought that I could get it toasted. I was told by the staff there that they have been instructed by management that they are to shut their grill off at 2:00 PM. Well I was 10 minutes late but the grill was still warm. This is somewhat like going to Pete's Coffee and being told that they are out of coffee.

had a very informative tour w/ the owner Tom who gave us a complete run down of the bread making process. he was also was very generous and gave us a ton of semifreddis bread to take home: olive loaves, cinnamon morning bun, sweet baguettes, cinnamon twists, AND olive croutons !!! Tom is knowledgeable about his product, knowledgeable about his business, and runs it efficiently. great bread company! #supportlocal

Best rye bread bar none! I didn't think I would ever see it again. Lots of seeds, not sour dough, not too course. Delish!Thank you!!

I love the Semifreddis line of bread. Haven't had one bread yet that I don't like. As someone who still delusionally dreams of wearing a bikini again I actually I like all of them way, way too much for my own good. My favorite (at the moment) is the seeded baguette. It must be the rest of humanity's favorite also because we often can't find it in stock. We shop the two mainland Safeways and the Raleys and about 50% of the time we can't find a seeded one. Oswald shops very early in the morning but even that doesn't help. Another issue with the seeded baguettes is that they are very sparsely seeded lately. When I first started buying these several years ago they had lots of seeds. Now there are much fewer seeds and sometimes only on one half of the loaf.

This is my favorite bread /baguette and Biscotti. They are family owned and make a huge impact on the city of Alameda - where they are located! I get to smell the bread being baked ! You are a good neighbor

I haven't been inside the bakery in Alameda but I buy their baguettes and sweet batard every chance I get when I see it available. Toasted and then eaten with a slice of good quality butter and a nice cup of coffee on a sunny morning....life is good.

Their bread's amazing of course, but just as awesome is the fact that they have fieldtrips for the local elementary school kids to see how the bread's baked along with an incredibly generous goodie bag of tasty breads and croutons.Definitely our go-to fresh bread and everything they sell is always top notch