Small Business Feature: A Waterville City Baker with a Knead to Serve

Waterville baker and owner of Universal Bread Adrian Sulea lives a life dedicated to serving the town fresh loaves of bread, made with so much care he barely has any time for himself. 

For Sulea, serving the community with delicious loaves of crusty, golden bread is worth more than a good night's sleep and time to unwind. In spite of having to begin the baking process before the crack of dawn to ensure top-tier quality, he finds the steps meditative and is grateful for the contemplative morning hours while the rest of the city sleeps. 

"You wake up around one o'clock in the morning. It's quiet, and you're on your own, just mixing and tossing and rising the dough ... and that's how you start your day. You get here early, but for three or four hours, it's a quiet time before you begin the intensive process of baking," Sulea said.

Sulea uses simple ingredients when baking, affirming the notion that fewer ingredients of higher quality translate to better results. With the help of time, the limited ingredients in his recipe develop together, making for a hearty loaf of rustic bread. 

"We use starters, and they ferment for a long time. Then, I usually come in the middle of the night here and mix it all up again.  The dough gets to ferment again for another three or four hours," Sulea said. "It's a long process, but good things are worth waiting for. It's really up to the fermenting agent, the yeast, there's no sugar or additives in it. But you have to allow time to toil on the natural fermentation process. Ultimately, everything gets baked on stone, so that every handmade loaf ends up with a beautiful crust."

Originally from the mountainous region of Transylvania, Romania, Sulea was happy to end up in the city of Waterville, sharing the European-style bread he was accustomed to with the rest of the town. 

"It's been kind of a winding road. I went to college at the University of Maine and lived in central Maine here for a while," Sulea explained. "Waterville is an up-and-coming town that we've always liked, and we always came across the street for Lebanese food. We liked the surrounding and the neighborhood and the town, so that's how it all started."

Sulea also enjoys owning his own small business. 

"Being your own boss allows more room for independence," Sulea said. "Being independent with the way you structure your work, the way you determine which way your product is going to be like, look like, and taste like, are all things I appreciate. With being independent comes a higher degree of interconnectivity with your customers. It's easier to make adjustments and be responsive to what customers want, need, and expect. You get to be nimble when it's time to change something or adapt. That's the really nice thing about being small."

As to where Universal Bread is headed, everything hinges on finding people who are dedicated and passionate about the craft of bread baking. "Add these ingredients to the ones we are using, and the sky's the limit," Sulea said. 

Though Sulea has a lot of work on his hands and runs on little sleep, he enjoys serving the community delicious, four-dollar loaves of old-world bread.

So next time you find yourself on Temple Street, feel free to stop in Universal Bread for a fresh loaf of crusty bread that will transport you back to another time when things were much simpler. 

~ Jenna Boling `24