It’s a Saturday afternoon in Kansas City, and the barrel room at KC Wine Co. carries a faint whiff of wine barrels — but mostly the warm, yeasty scent of bread straight from the oven.
Kansas City Sourdough Co.
💰 Revenue: $1,000+/month
🗓️ Started: 2023
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“That first class, squeezed into a friend’s dining room, proved the idea had legs — even if the oven could barely keep up.”
Flour streaks the tables in uneven trails, little clouds falling to the floor whenever someone shifts.
Over by the windows, a cluster of people hunch over mixing bowls, sleeves shoved up, laughing between stretches of quiet kneading.
At the front, in a KC Sourdough Co. apron, Dan Ansaldo keeps the room moving. He only runs one of these classes each month, but it’s enough to clear more than $1,000 after expenses — tidy extra income for something that began as a weekend hobby.
Since a first run with friends, he’s turned it into a sell-out event with help from a local winery, some sharp marketing, and a format that sends people home with their own starter and a loaf in progress.
From Kitchen Experiments to Packed Classes
Ansaldo first learned the art and science of sourdough in 2017 — “before it became a trend,” he said. Back then, it was just a way to make better bread for his wife and two kids, “a healthier choice, but mostly for fun.” One of his first loaves, a garlic parmesan, “was delicious.”
For a while, the breadmaking faded into the background. “I kinda put it aside as we moved a couple times,” Dan said. Then 2020 hit, and with more time at home, he dusted off his starter and got back into the habit.
By 2023, there was usually a loaf cooling on the counter. Sometimes it was just for his family; other times, friends would ask to buy one. That same year, a woman from his church started asking him to teach. “She said my bread was the best she’s tasted and wanted me to share my techniques,” he recalled.
He agreed, but the trial run — about ten friends in her dining room — showed the limits fast. Mixing bowls covered every inch of counter space, and the oven could only handle one round of baking at a time.
Finding the right venue wasn’t simple. It had to fit a crowd without feeling packed in, be close enough that people wouldn’t hesitate to make the trip, and have the kind of setting that made it worth leaving the house. In April 2025, an email landed from the owner of KC Wine Co., who had seen his classes online.
The winery’s barrel room checked every box: wide tables for each guest, natural light streaming in, and an atmosphere that made people want to stay awhile. With a space secured, Dan could turn his attention to the details — the prep, the process, and the people.
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Inside a $1K Bread Class
This isn’t just a quick show-up-and-bake deal. Dan spends about ten hours prepping before the first person walks through the door. “I bake a couple loaves ahead so folks can taste as we go,” he says. The rest? Measuring ingredients, packing up utensils and bowls, printing recipe cards. Oh, and making sure every single person leaves with a fresh starter.
When the class is at KC Wine Co., Dan gets there early — sometimes way early. “Gotta set up tables, get the starters out, make sure all’s ready,” he says. By the time guests arrive, everything’s laid out: mixing bowls, dough scrapers, bags of flour — ready for action.
They start off with some warm, crusty bread tasting. Then, it’s hands-on time. Everyone mixes, kneads, measures at their own stations. By the end, they’re packing up dough to bake at home the next day. “They love taking home something they made. It’s not just theory — it’s theirs,” Dan says.
The crowd? Mostly women over 40. Lots come in pairs or small groups. “It’s creative. It’s social,” Dan explains. “Many haven’t baked bread before, but they’ve seen it online and want to try.”
Dan says the appeal for this group is that it’s a creative outlet — a chance to slow down and try something new with others.
All bookings go through his website, payments via Stripe. Refunds? Only up to a cutoff. “If you let cancellations come too late, you get stuck with empty seats,” he warns. Reminder emails a few days before help keep no-shows low.
All this effort adds up — so how does that translate into pricing and profit?
Pricing and Profitability
Dan usually gets about 40 people showing up for his bread classes. That nets him over $1,000 in profit for just one afternoon of teaching. One class a month like this adds up to about $12,000 a year — not bad for a hobby that grew into something more.
Ticket prices range from $30 to $50, depending on what’s included. That might mean bread tastings, all the ingredients and tools during class, plus a fresh starter and some dough to take home. Dan says, “It’s more than just learning bread baking. You actually leave with something you can bake the next day — and the starter to keep making more.”
When you look around, hands-on cooking classes usually go for somewhere between seventy-five and a hundred bucks a person — especially if they throw in food or take-home goodies. Dan’s prices come in a bit lower but still pack a solid punch for the value.
He figured out the price through trial and error, and by checking what similar local experiences cost. Giving people something real to take home along with the skills makes it easier to justify.
As for the workload? “It’s not my full-time gig, and honestly, I’m fine with that,” he says. Keeping it small keeps it fun — and keeps those classes selling out.
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Filling Every Seat: Dan’s Marketing Playbook
KC Wine Co. isn’t just where Dan teaches — it’s also one of his biggest promoters. The winery has a loyal following online, and when they post about his class, it reaches far more people than he could on his own. “They’ve got a built-in audience that already trusts them,” Dan said. “If they say it’s worth going to, people listen.”
Even so, he doesn’t just sit back and hope the venue fills the seats. Around Mother’s Day, for example, he threw together a quick flyer in Canva — nothing fancy — and ran Facebook ads aimed at people looking for last-minute gifts. “Everyone panics the week before,” he said with a grin. The ad worked. That June class sold out within days.
A lot of his sign-ups still come from word of mouth. Past students tell friends, or come back with them the next time. Dan likes that part. “It’s kind of a built-in trust thing — if your friend loved it, you figure you will too.”
He also posts plenty of behind-the-scenes photos and short clips. They’re not overly polished — just snapshots of flour-dusted tables or people laughing mid-knead — but they give a real feel for what it’s like in the room.
Follow-up is another big piece. Dan emails past attendees and anyone who’s asked about the class before. Sometimes it’s just a quick note about the next date, other times it’s a “spots are going fast” nudge. Either way, it helps keep no-shows down and repeat students coming.
And whenever there’s a natural hook — holidays, local events, even the change of seasons — he works it into his marketing. “You’ve gotta give people a reason to sign up right now,” he said.
As Dan puts it: “Stay connected with the place you’re teaching, with the people you’ve taught, and with what’s going on around you. Do that, and the seats pretty much take care of themselves.”
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What He’d Tell Someone Starting a Class-Based Side Hustle
Dan never set out to turn bread-making into a side hustle. It started with baking for friends. Eventually, someone suggested he run a class. The teaching side came later — along with the systems that made it possible to repeat without stress.
“I didn’t start with some grand plan,” he said. “It was one trial class, a bunch of friends, and figuring it out as I went.”
From there, he found what was worth repeating: a simple setup, the right venue, and a price that felt doable but still covered his time. A run sheet helped him keep things moving smoothly from start to finish. He also learned that timing classes around moments when people were already looking for something to do — holidays, busy weekends — made it easier to fill seats.
For anyone thinking about running their own class-based side hustle, the basics matter: give people a reason to talk about the experience, keep it organized, and make sign-up easy. You can go further by offering a special takeaway, encouraging guests to share photos during class, collecting emails for future events, or partnering with nearby businesses that attract the same kind of crowd.
For Dan, it’s never been about running as many sessions as possible or charging the most he could get. It’s about making the schedule fit the rest of his life — and keeping it enjoyable enough to want to do again.
💡 Pro Tips: Dan’s Advice for Running a Bread Class
- Lead with the experience. “Great bread matters, but so does how the room feels from the moment people walk in.”
- Choose partners carefully. A venue with its own audience and the right atmosphere can make promotion much easier.
- Play to the calendar. Holidays, seasonal shifts, and local happenings can all give people a reason to book now rather than later.
- Send guests home with more than memories. Dough, starter, or another tangible takeaway keeps them engaged after class.
- Keep it streamlined. Simple tools, recipes, and a clear flow make it easier to focus on the teaching itself.
- Set a pace you can sustain. “Once a month works for me — it keeps demand high and stops me from burning out.”
What’s Next for KC Sourdough Co.
Dan’s got a few ideas in motion. One is an on-demand class people can watch anytime — pause it, rewind a step, come back a week later if they need to. He’s also had requests for private group sessions, and selling loaves at the Saturday farmer’s market is still on the table.
Other possibilities sit scribbled on a whiteboard in his kitchen: a ticket-plus-“starter kit” bundle, holiday-themed bakes, a Mother’s Day sourdough series, maybe a soup-and-bread night in the fall. Corporate workshops have even come up in conversation.
No matter what direction he takes, the core won’t change: a hands-on class where people leave with something they made — and maybe a little starter to keep the habit going at home.
Back in the barrel room at KC Wine Co., the next class is already on the calendar. The tables will be set, the starters will be ready, and another forty people will walk out with warm bread in hand. For Dan, that’s enough: one afternoon a month that pays for itself, keeps him baking, and gives his community a reason to come back.
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