Pictured: Natalia Lugowska with her long-fermented sourdough. Photo courtesy of The Bakero.

Someone has probably told you about the sourdough. That’s how fast word travels when a bakery nails it. The Bakero opened on that newly popular stretch of Main Street near the Regal Hollywood a month ago, and there’s already a line at the counter.

A Ukrainian stay-at-home mother of three, owner Natalia Lugowska cooked constantly, and eventually staged at a bakery she adored in Warsaw. In 2024, she and her husband moved to Sarasota after years of vacationing here and making friends.

Lugowska bakes without commercial yeast or additives. Finding the right flour took time—many American brands contain glyphosate—till she landed on Central Milling Company, an organic producer. Long fermentation does the trick. “It was a game changer for me,” Lugowska says, citing better digestion and flavor. "Step by step, every day, we created our perfect sourdough recipe,” she says. An experienced baker from Hungary joins her at the bench. “And the same with croissants.”

Those croissants: start with plain, then graduate to pistachio, filled with house-made cream, topped with Belgian white chocolate, calibrated so the nut shines. “I didn’t want to kill the real pistachio taste,” Lugowska says. The cinnamon bun gets an American twist from a Polish recipe. A raspberry cream brioche traces back to her grandmother. “It’s exactly how she did it. Very homey.” Their most coveted breakfast, The Bakero Plate, is continental cooking at its best: sourdough (white, whole wheat, seeded) with whipped European butter, organic soft-boiled eggs, aged gruyère, half-avocado and ham or smoked salmon. “People are happy to have such an option.”

The interior channels Copenhagen: glossy concrete floors, bentwood chairs, textured walls wth abstract art. Floor-to-ceiling windows open to sun-n-street. There’s a cookook library and a kids’ corner. One side moves fast; the other entices you to linger. Lugowska designed it herself. “I just felt there was a place for me,” she says. The sourdough, turns out, is worth the hype.

The Bakero, Mon-Fri 6:30am-2pm, Sat 7:30am-2pm, 1900 Main St. Ste 104, Sarasota, 941-404-5565, thebakero.com.

Pictured: Natalia Lugowska with her long-fermented sourdough. Photo courtesy of The Bakero.