Aviv Fried's Sidewalk Citizen nourishes minds and stomachs

Some of Calgarys best-loved bread is baked by a self-taught baker who learned and honedhis craft just by doing it.

Having never baked before, Aviv Fried taught himself to craftthe perfect loaf.

He went on to deliver his creationsby bike tocustomers homes, wrapped in paper and nestled on blankets in a kids trailer for $5 a piece.

• Read more from Julie Van Rosendaal|Food and the City

As he learned and fine-tuned his technique, proceeds for his loaves went to CODE, aCanadian organization that supports literacy in Africa.

Fried grew up just outside Tel Avivon the other side of the city from his partner,Michal Lavi.

The pair met and moved to Calgary in 1999, after fulfilling two years ofmandatory Israeli military service.

"It was terrible. We were really lame soldiers," jokedFried.

A biomedical engineer turned baker

Fried came to theUniversity of Calgary where heearnedhis master's degree in biomedical engineering and an undergraduate degreewith honoursinapplied math and physics.

Ajob offer to become a financial analyst at a Toronto bankmade himrealize the career path he was on wasnt in line with his ideals.

And so after completing his thesis in 2009, Friedstarteda stint at Janice Beaton Fine Cheeseand beganteaching himself to bake.

This new trajectory was a better fit, and Fried began his quest to mastering theart of the perfect loaf.

He travelled the world tolearn fromlike-mindedartisanal bread bakers beforecoming home to Calgary to experiment with locally grown andmilled organic flours.

He and his small team became one of the first to use red fife, theoldest variety of heritage wheat in Canada, which disappeared for generations and wasbrought back about a decade ago.

• RECIPE |Honey Walnut Red Fife Wheat Loaf

What's on the menu

Fried and Lavi's goal withSidewalk Citizenwas to become a part of the fabric of thecity to engage with the community and contribute to its vibrancy, making the streetsmore interesting, as Aviv did with his custom-made bike and one-man baked goodsdelivery system.

The crackly artisan loaves and rich, buttery scones that followed led to a small bakeryjust off Macleod Trail that was jammed on the few mornings it was open each week.

They opened a second location in Sunnyside Market in Kensington,and have now evolved into a new space in the hip Simmons Building in the East Village,where they serve a broader offering of made-from-scratch meals, interesting salads,sandwiches, pizzas and the very best grilled cheese in the city.

The bread itself is athree-day process, and everything else is made in-house, from the spicy shakshuka(eggs poached in a thick sauce of tomatoes, chilies and cumin)to the burekas(puffpastry baked with cheddar and feta, stuffed with poached egg and their own green orred harissa) tothe ambah(an intense, rust-coloured fermented mango chutney) thatsdelicious on everything.

Their latest menu addition consists oflong-simmered stews, inspired by the tiny tin-roofedkerosene kitchens that are so common in Israel, where giant pots of flavourfulstews bubble on the stove all night long, to be served up with thick slabs of bread tohungry workers for lunch and dinner the next day.

Cultural salons series to launch

This month, Fried and Laviplan tostart nourishing minds as well as stomachs.

The duo will launch a series of cultural salons inthe small seating area overlooking the river with a curatedlist of artists and interestingspeakers.

Small groups of attendees will spend a few hours with the guests and partake inintellectually stimulating conversationsover supper.

The first event will featurelocalfilmmaker Cam Christiansen, butwatch for more interesting Calgariansto come.

The events will take place at the Sidewalk Citizen's East Village location in theSimmons Building at618 Confluence Way S.E. Calgary.