Neighbours Sells Golden, Chewy Crumpets In an Old McLaren Vale Tractor Shed

“The thing that’s lovely about a crumpet is that everyone enjoys them,” says Angelle Boucher. “From babies who are just starting to chew on things, to people with dentures.”

At Neighbours Cafe, which operates from a converted tractor shed, golden, house-made crumpets are the star attraction. Boucher and her husband, Daniel Warburton, are already doubling their seating to meet demand.

The crumpets are slow-fermented for a minimum of 72 hours at room temperature. They’re made with organic flour and no commercial yeast, dairy or animal products – just flour, water and time. “They’re very delicate, instead of stodgy and heavy on your gut,” Boucher says.

Get them with a simple layer of local honey, seasonal jams or seed spread, or loaded with options like smashed avocado and micro greens, or baked apple with salted caramel and crumble. The cake cabinet displays Basque cheesecake and flan pâtissier, plus six-packs of crumpets to take away.

Boucher and Warburton met in London, where Boucher grew up. They worked in the city’s emerging specialty coffee scene for a while before relocating to Paris, where they opened three cafes over the best part of a decade, including Neighbours.

That’s where the crumpets started. The couple was just looking to bring a piece of home to the cosy space – crumpets were hard to find in Paris – but soon customers were coming back for more. They began to roll them out with lavish toppings such as scrambled eggs and romesco, and hazelnut chocolate with berries and mint. “It’s a bread but you can diversify it,” Boucher says. “Once you go down that sourdough road, there’s no turning back.”

When the pandemic hit, Paris’s yo-yo lockdowns made front-facing hospitality almost impossible. Eventually, they sold everything and moved back to Boucher’s home state, initially selling crumpets at farmers markets in Willunga and Adelaide. Thousands of them. Boucher started baking at 1.30am to meet demand.

Then Warburton struck up a conversation with Dawn Patrol Coffee co-founder Dom Ossa at a dads group. Not too long after, Neighbours moved into the former Dawn Patrol HQ, on a vine-laden property between the towns of McLaren Vale and Willunga. Ossa’s team now roasts in a neighbouring shed and keeps Neighbours supplied with rotating single origins.

“It’s great – we’re still connected to the great coffee right next door,” Warburton says. “Being so close to a roastery is a luxury.”

The bathroom walls are a gallery of crayon drawings by customers young and old – another echo of  their Parisian days, when crayons were left on tables topped with paper, encouraging people to put down their phones for a while.

“The idea of Neighbours is to bring that community feeling together,” Boucher says. “We wanted to bring everybody together and create a space where everyone feels welcome.”

Neighbours Cafe
402 Main Road, McLaren Vale

Hours:
Monday to Friday 8am–2.30pm
Saturday 8am–2pm

neighbours.cafe
@neighbourscrumpets