About

Our Story

Anchor & Rye began the way a lot of good things do: quietly, at home, with time to pay attention. What started as sourdough experiments during quarantine became something deeper, shaped by an engineer's curiosity and by memories of bread as the center of Persian hospitality.

I'm Alaleh, founder of Anchor & Rye. By day, I work as a civil engineer, designing sustainable infrastructure for Boston's future. Off the clock, I'm at the bench, working with flour, water, and wild fermentation. The two practices mirror each other more than you'd expect. Both demand precision. Both reward patience. And both remind you that the best results come from respecting processes that can't be rushed.

The Foundation

In my Iranian household, bread was never background. It was the beginning of the meal, the gesture of welcome, the quiet signal of abundance. That relationship to bread stayed with me and eventually raised a question I couldn't ignore: how did everyday baked goods drift so far from nourishment?

My answer was to return to first principles: organic heritage grains sourced from small Northeast farms, stone milled flour that preserves the grain's character and integrity, long fermentation that develops depth and digestibility, and exceptional ingredients chosen with intention. None of it is about novelty. It's about honoring the craft.

Beyond the Grain

That same standard carries through everything I bake. I work directly with local farms that share my values: pasture raised eggs, dairy from small operations committed to animal welfare, and ingredients cultivated with care for the land.

You taste it in the richness of a cookie, in the fragrance of a loaf, in the kind of flavor that stays with you. But it's more than taste. It's a commitment to a food system that respects its sources, one that strengthens soil, sustains farming families, and honors the ingredients themselves.

The Bakes

Sourdough is the heart of Anchor & Rye: 24 to 48 hours of fermentation, stone milled heritage flour, and a wild culture cultivated here in Boston. Those same principles guide everything that leaves my kitchen.

My brown butter sourdough chocolate chip cookies feature organic fair trade chocolate from a craft producer in Berkeley, California, along with pasture raised eggs and cultured butter. Baked and flash frozen at peak freshness, they arrive ready for your oven. Warm cookies in minutes, with nothing compromised.

The sourdough banana bread is comfort, elevated. Deeply flavored, impossibly moist, and made with organic einkorn flour and farm fresh eggs. A familiar staple transformed by ingredients that actually matter.

From loaves to cookies, every recipe reflects an engineer's precision and a baker's reverence for tradition.

The Purpose

From Commonwealth Kitchen in Dorchester, I bake for those who believe good food deserves time and intention. The anchor in our name grounds us in Boston's heritage of craft and commerce. The rye honors the grains that sustained generations before us.

Anchor & Rye is baking as it should be: honestly made, thoughtfully sourced, shaped by time. Sustainability you can taste. Tradition you can share. And a reminder that the essentials, done well, are never rushed.