Clear Flour Bread

Flour, water, yeast, salt. Four lowlier ingredients are hard to imagine—as are the heights to which they can rise in the hands of master bakers like Clear Flour's husband-and-wife owners, Abe Faber and Christy Timon. Now in its third decade, their family shop turns out character-rich, deeply authentic European-style breads (pungent vollkornbrot, grassy sourdough) for Oleana, Toro, and other leading restaurants, as well as for a devoted walk-in clientele. Clinching the win is Clear Flour's metro location, which puts all this yeasty goodness within easy reach of carb-starved Bostonians. RUNNERS-UP: B&R Artisan Bread, Iggy's LAST YEAR: B&R Artisan Bread