285 Lafayette Street<\/a> with $60 loaves of rye bread coming out of the oven. On two visits, I watched curious customers snatch up loaf after\u00a0loaf.\u00a0<\/p>\nRye\u2019s the work of Austrian-born owner Martin Auer. The clean-lined, 3,000 square-foot storefront could be mistaken for a modern furniture showroom. Instead, it\u2019s a bakery that takes breadmaking to a new level of artisanal craftsmanship \u2014 and time-consuming patience.<\/p>\n
Steve Cuozzo grabs a pricey loaf at RYE by Martin Auer in Nolita. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
The tasteful storefront looks more modern furniture store than bakery. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
Auer\u2019s hand-shaped, round and\u00a0low-rise 3.3-pound loaf is neither a publicity stunt nor another exercise in culinary conspicuous-consumption. Rather, it\u2019s proof that while we don\u2019t live by bread alone, life\u2019s better when the bread\u2019s great. <\/p>\n
At first glance, the flat-topped loaf resembles\u00a0a holiday pie, its unscored crust a mound of mottled brown and white.<\/p>\n
The bread is made\u00a0from\u00a0nothing but salt, water and imported organic rye flour grown in what Auer calls \u201cancestral soil.\u201d Unlike sourdough products at other high-end Big Apple bakeries such as Breads Bakery and Ole & Steen, there are no sugar, seeds or spices.<\/p>\n
The only other \u201cingredient,\u201d as Auer calls it, is time.\u00a0 He should know as the scion of an Austrian family that\u2019s been baking acclaimed loaves for four generations. <\/p>\n
Each loaf is naturally fermented for 24 hours before it\u2019s baked, yielding a flavor complexion that\u2019s slightly nutty, slightly malty and almost-but-not-quite sweet. <\/p>\n
The sourdough bread is moist on the palate\u00a0when it comes out of the oven, so it \u201crests\u201d on wooden racks for at least eight hours before\u00a0sale. <\/p>\n
The bread is made from just a handful of ingredients. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise it\u2019s a challenge to slice it,\u201d said Tim Auer, Martin\u2019s son, who runs the business with him. It will stay fresh at home for six days, he said.<\/p>\n
The crust is firm but not crunchy. It\u2019s chewy beneath the \u00a0surface \u2014\u00a0a quality I found appealing but which some tasters in our office called \u201cgummy.\u201d It\u2019s a matter of taste but nobody can deny the care and attention that went\u00a0into it.<\/p>\n
If you take the plunge on a whole loaf, ask them to slice it first. \u201cYou need a really good bread knife which not everyone has,\u201d Tim Auer said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
Martin Auer (right) and his son, Tim, are behind the new bakery. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
The Auers know that $60 is a heavy lift. So they offer it in quarter- and half-loaf sizes for $15 or $30. Customers can also sample the bread by ordering a single slice topped with a choice of fourteen sweet or savory toppings, priced\u00a0from\u00a0$6 for butter and chives to $14 for \u201croe on rye.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the playful part of our menu,\u201d Tim said. \u201cWe want to show what\u2019s possible with rye.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
One enchanting option is liptauer ($8), a creamy Austrian cheese spread tinted with paprika and studded with chives.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t want to spring for a whole loaf, you can grab a slice with various toppings. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n
I enjoyed peanut butter and jelly ($6) as well, even after Auer told me the P.B. is Skippy \u2014 my least favorite brand. It somehow works well paired with Staud\u2019s jam, a Viennese brand. (Tim said that after we discussed it, they decided to include the exact source of each item on the menu.)<\/p>\n
But how about pastrami? We\u2019re in New York, after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thinking about it,\u201d Tim said with a \u201cwry\u201d chuckle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York has $40 cheese pizza and a $28 corn dog, but are we ready for a $60…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30122,29745,289,232,75,9,56,63,65,64,821],"class_list":["post-347082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-austria","tag-bread","tag-food-drink","tag-lifestyle","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}