Barrio Bread

Every week, James Beard winner Don Guerra’s Barrio Bread makes nearly 4,000 loaves all featuring local or heritage grains from the southwest. In their Tucson cafe, you can have your pick from countless styles, from a simple baguette to cinnamon-raisin and mesquite-flavored. You can also find a pan-Latin vegetarian and gluten-free meal at Tumerico, where the menu changes daily.

Get up with the sun and grab a breakfast burrito at the Anita Street Market or brave the lines at Barrio Bread, a community-supported bakery that makes extensive use of local heirloom grains. Then see Tucson's unique geography—nestled on an elevated plain in the Sonoran Desert, surrounded by five mountain ranges—by driving 20 minutes west into the Tucson Mountains. There, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a mostly outdoors natural history museum, zoo, and botanical garden, showcases the desert and its well-adapted inhabitants.

Phoenix carb lovers rejoiced last year when James Beard Award-winning baker Don Guerra announced that he would be coming to Gilbert once a week to bake and sell bread. His bread is iconic for its use of local grain and its distinctively designed loaves, including one featuring a cactus inset in the outline of Arizona. Guerra’s pop-up bakery at Hayden Flour Mills, where he sources those grains, immediately began drawing lines of guests eager to purchase boules, loaves and Sonoran bagels.

Barrio Bread owner and baker Don Guerra combines local grains and ancient baking techniques to create loaves with a chewy interior and amazing crust. A 2022 James Beard award winner, he freshly bakes a wide variety of breads including apricot cranberry, jalapeno cheddar, olive fougasse and whole wheat walnut. Beyond baking great bread, Guerra collaborates with local farmers, chefs and other food producers to strengthen the local grain economy and grow the local food network.

Barrio Bread: Don Guerra thinks about baking bread upon waking, when he goes to bed, and sometimes in-between. What began as a passion project in his garage with a handful of local heritage grains has developed into a legitimate national phenomenon, earning four James Beard Award nominations (a finalist in 2022!) and press coverage from Food + Wine and The New York Times, among many others. He also delivers online baking lessons for those who want to learn!

They are dedicated to exceptional quality bread, created with centuries-old baking techniques and locally grown heritage grains. The menu features fresh baked loaves for nearly every occasion and every pallet, from Apricot-Cranberry, to Jalapeño Cheddar, and of course beloved classics like focaccia and olive loaves. Make sure to stop by next time you want to level up your grilled cheese or morning toast with something a little extra special!

A 2019 James Beard Award Semifinalist ( and Fathom contributor), Don Guerra is the most famous baker in Tucson (and quite possibly the entire state of Arizona). His one-room bakery has a line out the door every day, rain or shine, and he sells out by noon. His humble beginnings are local legend, from baking out of his garage to selling out of his van before graduating to his current location a few miles east of downtown.

I feel like I say this with every recommendation, but no list of Tucson food is complete without Barrio Bread as well. Barrio Bread was created in 2009 by Don Guerra in his garage and has since expanded to a Tucson institution that often has an hour wait when they open. He works with local farmers to create the bread and has been nominated for multiple James Beard awards for his fantastic baking.

Loved by locals as "Barrio Bread," Don Guerra's bakery is a favourite destination for bread lovers in the Phoenix region. Most days, the tiny shop with a queue out the door opens at first light and closes by midday. Legend says Guerra started small, baking out of his garage and selling bread out of his van before relocating to his current position a few miles east of the city centre.

This spot is Mexican in ownership, and it's definitely a big deal. You know how some people (me) turn their garages into gyms?. Former teacher Don Guerra went in the opposite direction back in 2009 and built himself a garage bread bakery, specializing in regional heritage grains and Sonoran Wheat—the exact type that was brought over to Arizona by Spanish missionaries in the 1600s.

But you certainly don’t want to miss grabbing some artisanal bread from Barrio Bread. Don Guerra, the 2022 James Beard Award’s Outstanding Baker winner, is considered one of the founding fathers of the heritage grain movement. Guerra bakes his bread with grains that date back to the 17th century while mentoring Tucson refugees to establish their own food businesses.

(520) 327-1292 Award-winning baker Don Guerra has been baking fresh artisanal bread for over 20 years. Featuring several dozen choices including Baguettes, Briotes, Cubanos, Einkorn, European Rye, Focaccia, you will surely find one that pleases the palate. They currently have a limited selection of bread for preorder and delivery.

But apparently he never really got the aroma of baking bread out of him, and he was drawn back to the ovens to open Barrio Bread in a re-purposed garage in 2009, not only creating a line of breads baked on old and new principles but committing himself to strengthen the local grain economy and food network.

You won’t be in Tucson long before you start hearing about Barrio Bread. Many local restaurants are proud to serve Barrio Bread, so you’ll see their name on many menus. If you visit the bakery on the East side of town, you will have some pretty delicious bread to choose from.

At Barrio Bread, a Tucson bakery specialising in heritage grains, head baker Don Guerra mixes the wheat into his dough to make ciabatta rolls, bolillos (soft, torpedo-shaped bread rolls), and baguettes. In 2022, Guerra won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker.

Barrio Bread is a must-try for any bread lover visiting Tucson. Don Guerra, the baker behind Barrio Bread, even won a James Beard Award!. He’s known for using heritage grains sourced locally, which makes a big difference in the taste and quality.

We offer bread shares and limited sales from Barrio Bread, a local bakery with a true passion for artisan bread making. The CSA has been partnering with Don Guerra, as a Community Supported Baker, since he started his ‘Garage Bakery’ in 2009.

- Rating: 5.0 / 5 (49 reviews)- Detailed ratings: Food (5.0/5), Service (5.0/5), Value (5.0/5)- Type of cuisine: Bakeries- Address: 18 S Eastbourne Ave Off Broadway, Tucson, AZ 85716-5316- Read more on Tripadvisor

Barrio Bread is dedicated to exceptional quality ARTisan bread, created with centuries-old baking techniques and locally grown heritage grains. Bakery Bread Artisinal James Beard Award Winning Local

Professor Alvarez, meanwhile, gives a shoutout to Barrio Bread, whose master baker Don Guerra uses White Sonora heritage wheat to create "incredibly tasty bread unlike any other you have ever eaten.

Eastbourne Ave. in Tucson, Ariz. puts the finishing touches on the heritage loaf before baking on June 2. Guerra won the James Beard Award for outstanding baker on Monday.

With an emphasis on bread, owner, Don Guerra was a James Beard Semifinalist in 2019 for Outstanding Baker and in June 2022 he won the award for Outstanding Baker.