Eagle-eyed fans of baked goods might have spied a solitary croissant recently adorning a black-clad window on Cooyong Street with the instructions to take a snap. The croissant has now disappeared, a full cafe fit-out has emerged and the Three Mills Bakery team has thrown open the doors to their new space.
Three Mills Bakery has grown from its humble beginnings as the tiny on-site bakery for the (now closed) A. Baker in New Acton to a large multi-venue business with national distribution. Their range of frozen bake-at-home products can be found in IGAs from Atherton, Queensland to Portland, Victoria.
On a local scale, executive chef Bernd Brademann explained that they want to bring their products to more people in Canberra.
“We just wanted to get around to a few more suburbs and spread the joy,” Bernd told Region.
The new site in Braddon joins the combined production and retail spaces on Leeton Street and Newcastle Street in Fyshwick.
Unlike the larger Fyshwick locations, the Cooyong Street cafe won’t house a full production space. However, a couple of ovens are running on-site for freshly baked items like croissants, cookies and a few menu items unique to the city cafe. Bernd referred to this space as the ‘theatre’ bench where customers can watch the whole process while waiting for their coffee.
One of the items they’re baking on-site is fresh slabs of taglio, a Roman-style sheet pan pizza traditionally sold by the slice as street food in Italy. Bernd explained that they want each Three Mills Bakery location to have a distinct identity with different menu items depending on the customer base.
“There will be different offerings at each of the shops. In this location, we’ll be focussing on the lunch trade for nearby offices.”
They also provide a selection of sandwiches made on-site daily and freshly baked pies and sausage rolls which customers can take back to the office or dine in at the cafe tables with a coffee (and maybe a pastry). The fully stocked retail space has all your favourite danishes, tarts, slow-prove sourdough loaves and bake-at-home pastry products available to purchase in-store.
Initially, the cafe is open only on weekdays, but they’re looking to expand their opening hours in the future if there’s demand. The team will also continue to host their stall at the Capital Region Farmers Market at EPIC on Saturday mornings.
When asked if they had further plans to expand to more sites within Canberra, the team responded with a coy “maybe”, so keep your fingers crossed for another Three Mills Bakery location near you!
The new cafe is located at G3/16-18 Mort St, with street access via Cooyong Street. Initial opening hours are 7 am to 2 pm, Monday to Friday. Visit the Three Mills Bakery website for more information, or follow Three Mills Bakery on Facebook or Instagram.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on Riotact.