The man behind New York City's Rye discusses bringing his family's Austrian baking tradition to the Big Apple and why labor, premium ingredients and operating costs contribute to the $60 price.
$60 sourdough bread loaf sparks outrage online: 'Would never pay that much'
by Sadie Chafe · Fox NewsNEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Rye, the first United States location of Austrian bakery Martin Auer, recently opened in New York City — and its $60 loaf of rye sourdough is drawing attention.
The new concept on Lafayette Street focuses on one thing: bread.
Its 100% rye sourdough is made with "organic Austrian rye flour, water, salt and a lot of time during the process, because it takes a long time to make the bread," co-owner Tim Auer told Fox News Digital.
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The bakery uses a sourdough culture that Auer said has been in his family for more than 50 years and was brought to New York from Austria.
Preparing the sourdough takes about a day, he said. The dough is then mixed, rested, shaped and fermented again before spending about 70 minutes in the oven. After baking, the dense rye loaf needs to rest for at least eight hours before it can be properly sliced.
Each full loaf weighs about 3.3 pounds and sells for $60.
The $60 price reflects the ingredients and work behind each loaf, as well as the cost of operating in New York, Auer said.
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"The price of the bread is the result of all the efforts and costs that went into this project, but also every single loaf," Auer said.
"It's obviously all handmade here on Lafayette Street in one of the most expensive cities in the world, using only the best ingredients, meaning the best rye flour that we import from Austria. And we wanted to give the craft and the bread the stage we think it deserves. And with all these efforts, that's the price."
Customers don't have to spend $60 to try it. A half loaf sells for $30 and a quarter loaf for $15, and Rye also sells the bread by the slice.
Still, the price has generated criticism on social media.
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"I simply would never pay that much for a loaf," one Instagram user declared.
Another wrote that "bread is meant to be humble, something you share, not something you flex."
"Obviously, $60 is a steep price tag for a single loaf of bread," said Ricky Volpe, a professor of agribusiness at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
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But Volpe said production methods and transportation can contribute to unusually high food prices.
"In my mind, it actually would not be crazy as a price if, for example, this was being baked overseas and flown into the United States, because some of the absolute highest-priced food and agricultural items that I can think of rely on air transit," he said.
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Rye's bread is baked in New York, rather than overseas, using rye flour imported from Austria and the decades-old sourdough culture.
Sadie Chafe is a writer on the Lifestyle team at Fox News Digital.