There are no shortcuts in the bread-making process at Niedlov's Breadworks on the Southside.
Covenant College graduate John Sweet lovingly tends his bread from dough to piping hot loaf during an 18-hour process.
Mr. Sweet, who operates from a former warehouse area of Market Street Tire at 13th Street, has Chattanooga's only traditional artisan bread bakery. Niedlov's uses stone-ground organic flour from North Carolina, natural leavening, extended fermentation times, and loads of care as each loaf is handcrafted and given an ornate stamp.
The loaves are prefermented, kneaded, shaped by hand, allowed to rise and then baked in a European oven that Mr. Sweet located in Baltimore.
This bread is not sold retail, but it is available at several fine restaurants. Some of those are just a stone's throw from the bakery - including St. John's, Southside and Bellagio.
Niedlov Bread is also available at the Greenlife Grocery and The Mountain Market.
He hopes to land additional customers, including the Chattanoogan conference center.
Mr. Sweet said he learned the special bread-baking process while working at a bakery in Michigan. He then took additional training at the American Institute of Baking at Manhattan, Kan.
Niedlov's opened last October. John Sweet is the only employee, but he relies on Brent Jackson to do the books.
The name, he says, sounds Eastern European and is also a play on the words kneading as well as needing love.
He produces six different types of bread, including a whole wheat that is very difficult to produce using this timestaking process.
Nathan Lindley of the St. John's said they liked the Niedlov bread so much that they quit producing their own and now purchase from the neighboring business.