Page 73 - SLO Visitors Guide - Spring 2026

slovisitorsguide.com SPRING 2026 73
Paso Robles
Hours: Noon - 10pm
Black Sheep Sourdough Micro-Bakery and
the life-changing magic of sourdough bread
Just two years ago, Paula Kopper’s
life was completely different.
For starters, she didn’t bake at all.
“It’s been a whirlwind. Actually, it’s
been a tornado,” she says, reflecting
on the past two years.
For years, her husband had
begged her to bake cookies, but
they never turned out quite right.
She considered herself a cook and
left baking to others until her
husband developed a
gluten sensitivity.
After giving up
gluten to sup-
port him, she
realized that
she missed
good bread.
Kopper
stumbled
across
a video
explaining
how tradi-
tional sourdough
fermentation breaks
down gluten, making it
easier to digest for people who
are gluten-sensitive. That discovery
sent her down a rabbit hole. The
non-baker realized sourdough
wasn’t just baking; it was science.
“I put my headphones on and just
learned,” she says. “There’s so much
science behind sourdough. I got
obsessed.”
Although she was still working
full-time running her daycare, she
spent her nights experimenting. It
took four months to develop her
sourdough starter, and she named
the living culture Dough Rita. “I
probably baked 30 to 50 loaves
before I felt good about it,” she says,
“and every flavor after that took
just as much tinkering.”
She began giving it away to the
families at her daycare. It was made
with love, and she cherished the
idea that
she was
giving
them
some-
thing
whole-
some to
share.
Her sour-
dough was a hit!
Eventually, they started
trying to buy her bread. Six months
later, she had closed the daycare
she had run for 15 years, and she
was selling her sourdough to local
wholesalers and at the Paso Robles
Farmers Market.
The leap that paid off
Opening a storefront wasn’t
something she planned. She was
content baking from home, selling
at the market, and wholesaling.
She heard that the donut shop was
closing, and again her curiosity was
piqued. She called to inquire about
the shop but didn’t hear back for
five months. Seemingly out of the
blue, she got a call saying she was
first on the list for the shop. How-
ever, the waitlist was long, and they
gave her only four hours to decide
‘There’s so much
science behind
sourdough.’