From the arrival of a superstar Melbourne baker to an onslaught of delectable pastries and ultra-fluffy katsu sandos, here’s what took our fancy these past 12 months.
If Brisbane is in the midst of a love affair with fancy sandwiches, it’s particularly enamoured with Japanese-style sandos made with fluffy shokupan bread.
They’re everywhere right now, and were one of the defining trends of this year’s cafe openings. What else? Full-service cafes continued their post-pandemic retreat – operators now prefer more specialised spots that focus on just a few items to better keep their costs in check.
But that doesn’t mean they’re getting boring. Far from it. In a sense, the city’s AM-eating and drinking scene is more interesting than ever.
Here’s what caught our eye in 2024.
Baker D. Chirico, Newstead
After a six-year process, star baker Daniel Chirico finally opened his first outlet outside of Melbourne on Longland Street in Newstead.
Almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday that Baker D. Chirico Newstead has been open since its October debut, it’s had queues out the door. Locals flock for the sourdough (made using a 25-year-old starter Chirico developed with a pair of fermented organic apples and Wholegrain Milling flour) and bombolini of course, as well as maritozzi stuffed full of fresh cream and a touch of lemon zest.
But there’s also a greater focus on savoury products, such as a roast chicken sandwich with apple celery, tarragon and a dill mayonnaise; a caprese roll with grilled zucchini; and a rosemary croissant with manchego and prosciutto cotto.
There’s also a pork and fennel sausage roll Chirico is still tweaking, and he will soon introduce a beef ragu pie.
The shop itself is a striking evolution of the Carlton shop’s “breadbasket” design, with a curved timber ceiling and reams of white terrazzo on the floors and a counter stacked full of product.
There’s a bunch of brass-rimmed tables inside and extra seating outside lined alongside a water feature.
A Cafe Called Kevin, New Farm
A Cafe Called Kevin opened in January in the character-listed former premises of The Brunswick Project opposite New Farm’s Five Star Cinemas.
There was a lengthy refit after extensive fire damage in 2019 and the addition of a white picket fence, but the building has retained its eye-catching red-tin roof and expansive deck.
In the window is Kevin’s charming hand-painted and gold-leaf gilded branding, courtesy of Bowen Hills’ Barker Signs.
The menu has been through a couple of iterations, but star dishes so far include a chorizo chilli scramble on sourdough; truffled mushrooms with poached eggs on rye; and a bubble-and-squeak variation on an eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and thousand island hollandaise.
For drinks, Kevin keeps it simple with specialty coffee by Dibs backed by a menu of fresh juices and smoothies.
Nos. Bakehouse, Dutton Park
You can see former fashion buyer Susan Koh’s designer’s eye in Nos. Bakehouse. There’s the lovingly thought-through fit-out, with its vintage furniture and light fittings, carefully arranged framed pictures on the dining room wall, and winsome garden setting out back.
It’s also in the immaculate cakes and sandos the cafe is producing out of its cosy Annerley Road premises, formerly Penny Coffee Co and before that, a Fujifilm development lab.
Koh and co-owner Hank Lyu’s menu has changed since Nos. opened at the beginning of December. Gone are a bunch of brunch dishes, allowing the kitchen to better focus on a short menu of super-fluffy, mini yamagata-style sandos, and luscious, Instagrammable desserts.
There are five varieties of sando: brulee egg mayo, ham and cheese toastie, tuna mayonnaise with caramelised onions, ebi prawn with mayo, and chicken tender with mayo. All are relatively small one-handers served with the baked bread’s top still intact, the prawn and the chicken fried katsu-style with a panko crumb.
On the dessert menu there’s French toast made with the same sando bread and served with baked Japanese milk pudding and fruits, a yuzu brulee cheesecake, a twice-baked chocolate cake with creme anglaise, and ube (Filipino purple yam) cheesecake.
For drinks there’s a lavender iced matcha and iced latte, and a Basque iced long black, where cheesecake is served atop a coffee and torched, brulee-style. Elsewhere, there’s a selection of teas, juices and chai. Espresso and specialty coffee is fuelled by Sydney’s Five Senses.
Snug, Coorparoo
Seasoned chefs Leaham Claydon and Jianne Jeoung opened this charming Korean-inspired cafe in March in a pocket-sized former trophy shop in Coorparoo just off Chatsworth Road.
A straightforward but fetching fit-out – mostly handled by Claydon and Jeoung themselves – is defined by a spacious dining counter built out of red-stained Tasmanian blackbutt that runs the length of the venue.
Benches line the walls, the prime spot at the bifold windows that look out upon the surrounding houses and apartments.
For food, there’s scrambled egg drop milk bread, omurice with prawns and a skiitake lemon mentsuyu sauce, and a duck leg terrine ssam with a whole roasted mandarin gochujan.
There are also house-baked soft pretzels and coffee by Melbourne’s St Ali.
In late October, Claydon and Jeoung started opening Snug in the evenings Friday to Sunday, serving share plates accompanied by a tight list of small-producer wines and beer.
Cerin Pasticceria, Woolloongabba
In late May, Giuseppe Caputo and Matteo Cerin opened Cerin Pasticceria in the Logan Road space previously occupied by The Baker’s Arms. It quickly generated queues out the door for its Italian-inspired pastries, sandwiches and sweets.
The shop itself is a lovely, light-filled switch-up from the relatively grungy vibes of The Baker’s Arms.
Taking pride of place is an enormous marble counter that displays the baked goods. Beyond, through a window, you can spy Cerin and his pastry chefs working in a temperature-controlled room.
Arrive at Cerin in the morning and the cabinets are stacked full of pasticcini (small Italian treats). You might find passionfruit or pistachio crostatina, salted caramel or chocolate bigne (cream puffs), mini rhum baba, cannoli, and mini tarts topped with custard and seasonal fruit.
Larger items include vanilla and Nutella bombalone; plain, pistachio or vanilla cornetti; maritozzo (brioche buns piped full of whipped cream); and Danishes topped with seasonal fruit, or smoked pancetta, carbonara cream and shaved parmesan.
Later in the day, Caputo and Cerin serve four savoury focaccia – margherita with fresh bocconcini; porchetta with potato and rosemary; mortadella with stracciatella; and roasted veggies with provola – which all come with the requisite, satisfying crunch when toasted.
Doughcraft, CBD
Towards the start of the year, Simone Presta, Steven Chevalier and Salvatore Compagnone opened a new outlet of their cult Albion bakery, Doughcraft, in the smart Mary Street space formerly occupied by Leonard’s Bar & Bistro.
Mornings are dedicated to flaky pastries and crusty bread. There are Danishes crammed full of whipped cream, vanilla and custard; pain au chocolat; apple compote turnovers; and creme brulee croissant tarts.
For bread, there are baguettes and loaves of sourdough, as well as a range of smaller focaccia to snack on.
New for the CBD is a menu of panini sandwiches designed for lunchtime such as the Veronica (mortadella, stracciatella, pistachio crumble), the Adele (prosciutto, pesto, mozzarella, tomato, rocket), the Daniela (porchetta, ’nduja, capsicum, stracciatella) or the Viviana (eggplant, artichoke, capsicum, feta, pepitas).
In September, Doughcraft began to open for dinners, cooking pinsa (a Roman flatbread similar to pizza but made from soy, rice and wholegrain flours), housemade pasta and mains, accompanied by cocktails and Italian wines.
Buttery Boy, Fortitude Valley
Vince Mōefa’auo (formerly Halo Ground) opened this 30-seater in April in Chinatown Mall opposite the TC Beirne building.
The food menu revolves around a bunch of pancakes that the venue has named butterycakes (a cross between a souffle pancake and an orange-blossom hotcake).
You can order a classic butterycake with housemade honeycomb, blackberry or maple butter; or a specialty butterycake, with variations including the Nutella Bombe Alaska (filled with Nutella, doughnut glaze, Nutella ice cream and torched meringue), the Pavlova (lemon curd, passion fruit and vanilla cream) and the S’More (torched marshmallow, Lindt chocolate and Graham crackers).
For drinks, there’s Coffee Supreme coffee, “boujee” hot chocolates and turmeric lattes.
The cafe has been fitted out with marble counter and table tops, a padded timber banquette, and large picnic tables outside in the mall.
Supernova, Fortitude Valley
Brothers Tze-Huei and Chewie Choo unveiled Japanese vinyl cafe Supernova in June. It specialises in katsu sandos and soba.
The sandos come with either chicken, pork, spicy tuna, egg mayo or black Angus beef.
All are made with lightly toasted Japanese-style milk bread and housemade barbecue sauce, and are accompanied by a dipping sauce and pickled ginger. There’s also a Mother and Daughter sandwich, which matches chicken katsu with soft egg mayo.
The soba menu keeps it similarly straightforward, with different proteins – wagyu sirloin tataki, tuna sashimi, crispy-skin barramundi and tempura vegetables – matched to different broths.
Away from sandos and soba there’s a short breakfast menu that includes an omelette with braised shiitake mushrooms, sake onion, baby spinach and a dashi broth; chicken katsu with poached eggs, pickled fennel, curry sauce and shokupan toast; and teriyaki beef with tamogoyaki, caramelised onion and kewpie mayo on a buttered bun.
For drinks there’s specialty coffee by Providore & Co’s Kasa Coffee, matcha and hojicha (including iced matcha and hojicha lattes), and Wild 1 juices. There are also wines and beers for those chasing a boozy brunch.
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
