Xan DeVoss is a longtime resident of the Lower Haight with a deep passion for baking artisan bread, inspired by fond memories of baking with her father. The support of the Lower Haight community helped fuel the heart of DeVoss' passion for artisan bread, allowing her to strike out and start her own business, Fox and Lion Bread.

After years of running a subscription-based bread offering, DeVoss decided to open a brick-and-mortar location this year. Her new Butchertown Gourmet, located in Bayview-Hunter's Point, is a partnership with winemaker Barbara Gratta (of Gratta Wines), and features a bakery for DeVoss and a tasting room for Gratta, with regular wine-and-pizza nights on Fridays. 

Where are you from originally?

"San Diego. I moved around a bit; I spent time in Mississippi and Oregon before moving to San Francisco. When I moved to San Francisco in 1992, I rented my first place in the Lower Haight. I’ve been in this neighborhood ever since."

What was the Lower Haight like when you first arrived?

"Definitely different from what it is today. It was a rougher neighborhood, but there was definitely a community here. Back then, you'd see things you'd never see today. I remember cars parked on the sidewalks to get out of the way for street cleaning, and then owners would move their cars back.

"It was a different neighborhood feel. There was a lot of acceptance and appreciation of each other, because the Lower Haight was such a diverse community. The Lower Haight still has a great community, even through the changes over the years."

Did you always plan to be a professional bread baker?

"No. I studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute and bartended at night. I love art and photography, but I felt being a full-time photographer wouldn’t be a sustainable long-term career for me. I always knew I wanted to run my own business, and after my son was born, I really got into homesteading. I adjusted my bartending hours to have more time with my family, and fed an unexpected deep passion for baking fresh bread. I was obsessed with sourdough bread and was hooked after I baked my first loaf."

What fueled your obsession with fresh-baked bread?

"I have great memories of baking fresh bread with my dad over 30 years ago. My maternal great-grandmother was also a fantastic bread baker. When my dad baked bread, it always brought friends and family together. It created a community."

How did you develop your recipes? 

"I’m primarily self-taught. Once I started, I spent a lot of hours researching information online, and revisited my father’s recipes. I experimented until I developed a set of my own recipes that I was happy with. I wanted to learn more and spent two weeks training with Gérard Rubaud [of Farine] in Westford, Vermont. It was an incredible experience. Josey Baker [of The Mill] is from the same area in Vermont, and we were developing our passion for bread-baking at the same time."

When did you decide it was time to turn your passion into a business? How did you bring in your first customers?

"I’d been sharing my breads with family and friends, then with my Lower Haight community. The response was great. In 2011, I was ready to start selling bread on a subscription basis. It was the first step in developing my business. I built a website to give presence to my work. Local word-of-mouth in my neighborhood was a huge factor in attracting my first subscription customers, and I also offered bread tastings through local businesses in the Lower Haight."

Your subscription customers in the Lower Haight can pick up their bread at Merch. How did that partnership start?

"When I first started getting subscribers, I used to deliver directly, door-to-door. As my subscription base started to grow, it became difficult to deliver my breads personally. I talked to [owner] Yong Cho, who kindly gave me a space to have customers come in and pick up their bread. It’s a great partnership."

You now run your bakery out of Bayview-Hunter’s Point. What brought you to that location?

"There’s a great community here. My customer base started to grow, and I needed to find commercial space to fulfill the subscriptions coming in. I was temporarily using a commercial space in Hayes Valley, and I needed something permanent that I could afford. I really wanted to find a place in my neighborhood, but the cost of commercial rent was prohibitive. After a lot of searching, I realized I could afford space in Bayview-Hunter's Point."

How did you establish yourself there? Does it impact your local subscription base?

"I got involved with the Bayview Underground Food Market around 2013, and got a great response to my breads. Through that event, I met Barbara Gratta [of Gratta Wines]. We decided to partner to pull in the capital we needed to establish ourselves. Fresh bread and wine go great together!

"We ran a Kickstarter campaign that helped us get our feet on the ground. This space will give me the capacity to fulfill the requests of my subscribers and grow. I have amazing customers in the Lower Haight, Mid-Market and Bernal Heights areas, and am grateful for their support. I love making their bread!"

Photo: Fox and Lion Bread Company

What was the hardest thing about starting your business?

"Finding affordable space as my client base started to grow. I love my neighborhood and I really wanted to stay local. Once we found our space in Bayview, we did the build out ourselves to keep costs down. I am deeply grateful to our Kickstarter supporters because they really helped us get started. 

"Fox and Lion is officially open now, for four weeks! I’m in Bayview by 4am, and start baking the breads. I’m back home in time to see my kids and help my partner take them to school. Then I’m back at Fox and Lion to open at 9am, ready for our customers."

What kind of breads do you bake, and what are some of your favorites? Are you experimenting with new recipes?

"The four-grain, sourdough, rye and cracked wheat are some of the really popular ones. I love milling my own grains to produce my breads, and I recently experimented with some fermented grains from Black Sands. I’m always looking at what I’m going to do next."

Keep an eye out for Xan’s bread tastings at Merch during the Lower Haight Art Walk. Lower Haight locals can also subscribe to Fox and Lion's bread through their website. Fox and Lion is open at Butchertown Gourmet in the Bayview-Hunter's Point from 9am-2pm, Tuesday-Saturday; Friday pizza nights with Gratta Wines run from 5pm-9pm.