Stephen Montoya
Lance Misner
On the West Side of Fort Worth, The Sour Boule has quietly become a neighborhood institution — a bakery and cafe where every detail is overseen with care. The eatery is known for its house-made bread, sold by the loaf or used to craft gourmet sandwiches and pastries. As of October, the Sour Boule has added house-made meats to its offerings — an endeavor that had been on the table from the start.
What began as a home-kitchen experiment in sourdough has grown into a bustling, full-service operation that draws crowds for scratch-made sandwiches and artisanal loaves.
Husband-and-wife team Lance and Alexis Misner opened the cafe in Sept. 2023 in the former Busy B’s Bakery space at 3701 Southwest Blvd. Nearly a year later, they moved next door into a larger space once occupied by Edelweiss — expanding both their kitchen and their ambitions. Today, The Sour Boule makes everything from scratch, including all its deli meats — a shift Lance describes as both challenging and rewarding.
“It’s something I wanted to do from the beginning,” he says. “Our goal was always to have fresh, clean, quality food. We’ve just kind of got in the habit of ordering our deli meats, and finally I was like, ‘It’s time to stop. Let’s just do it. We have the capacity, we have the room.’”
The process started with chicken, then turkey, followed by roast beef and ham.
“I’m bringing the meat already cut into sections, so that way it helps on the labor side — the faster I can get the meat marinating and brining ... the quicker we can get it back out to the consumer,” Lance explains.
He admits that the most challenging part of transitioning to in-house meats was mastering the timing and processes needed to ensure safety and consistency.
Stephen Montoya
“With the help of timers, tracking sheets, and careful planning, we’ve now got the system down to maintain quality across every order,” he says.
So why start making in-house meats now? Lance says it was an issue of space at the original location.
“I’ve always cooked my entire life,” he says. “I know how to season meats and stuff like that. But we couldn’t do the meats thing in our first location — we didn’t have the space. Now that we’ve got over here, we made some transitions and changes, and now we’re going fully in-house.”
The Misners’ journey hasn’t been without growing pains. When they first expanded, their team swelled to nearly 70 employees, and the kitchen struggled to keep up with demand. Lance recalls the lesson clearly: growth must be measured, and customer feedback is invaluable.
“Don’t grow too fast. Stay calm,” he says. “Listening to our customers helped us refine our approach — and focus on what people actually wanted.”
Now, with a streamlined team of 10 and a kitchen built for both precision and scale, The Sour Boule hums with activity.
Beyond the food, Lance emphasizes the culture behind the cafe: “We treat people with dignity — and that’s our mantra. That’s what helps a good business grow and move forward. Word of mouth more than any billboard or any magazine article.”
Because the eatery is running smoothly, Lance now has time to tinker with new ideas that might spark the next trend. “We have a fantastic team, and now I get to be creative again,” he says.
The Sour Boule is located at 3801 Southwest Blvd., Fort Worth, TX 76116.
