In fact, the only thing it sells is its namesake — Billy Bread, a multigrain sourdough that’s handmade from organic materials. But that’s just fine with locals. In the seven months since its opening, Billy Bread has become the bread du jour in many local homes and restaurants. Owner Billy Fallen cooked up the Billy Bread recipe himself with help from a French baker friend in Vermont. The formation of each loaf is a precise chemistry — from the temperature of the air and the yeast, down to the brown bag packaging. Fallen even mills the wheat himself.

Fallen opened his wholesale bakery in November. "I had a substantial amount of business to begin with," he says. He reached full capacity — baking and selling up to 200 loaves a day — in only 14 weeks.

Fallen attributes his company’s rapid success to his attention to detail and pride in the product, not to mention low overhead. Except for a few deliverymen, Fallen is the only employee. He’s a one-man band, doing everything from baking and delivering Billy Bread to executing business-deals, bookkeeping and cleaning. While this may seem a heavy workload to some, Fallen insists it’s important to do as much himself as possible in order to establish the reputation of his bakery and maintain quality control.

His loaves sell wholesale for $2.50 apiece. Fallen says that for now, all his revenue goes to overhead and start-up costs, which include a $38,000 oven and a German-made mixer imported from Quebec. Fallen plans to pay off loans — which were financed by his family — within a year. Once the loans are gone, he plans to hire another baker for a second shift to meet the increasing demand.

Fallen also hopes to open another wholesale bakery in the Charlottesville area. He’s "not counting anything out" in terms of expansion outside of Virginia. But like many small business owners, he worries about finding employees who are as dedicated to the product as he is. "Finding capital will be the easy part. I’m struggling to find bakers who pay attention to details."