Coming Soon: Time & Temp, a Tiny Albion Bakery From Falco and Proud Mary Alums

While most people were fleeing Melbourne during the strict lockdowns and relocating to Brisbane, Manning Young and Palita Cai did the opposite.

Young initially moved to Melbourne to work for the Department of Transport and pursue a PhD, but eventually pivoted into coffee. He landed a job at Proud Mary, working his way up to become a roaster. Cai, a chef by trade, found work at Falco – and fell in love with baking.

“A lot of great bakers I know, who have been doing it for a long time, had to start at [the bottom],” says Cai, who’s now baking at Riser Bread. “I got really lucky to work in a great bakery [straightaway].”

After several years in Melbourne, the pair returned to Brisbane with the intention to open their own spot.

“We’ve always wanted to do something for ourselves, and we just didn’t know how to make it work until we had those skills,” Young says. “We took these jobs deliberately as training, but it’s been four to five years of thinking about how we’re going to do it, and where.”

Now they’ve found their answer. This August, the duo will open Time & Temp, a tiny bakery in Albion focused on batch brew coffee and small-batch pastries. Cai will bake a changing selection of around nine items, including staples like a plain croissant, cardamom bun and pain au chocolat. There will also be sweet and savoury danishes, shaped by whatever fresh produce she can source from local suppliers.

On the coffee front, Young will start with beans from Proud Mary but plans to embrace roasters from around the world – including a friend at the respected Timbertrain in Vancouver. He also hopes to host cupping sessions to connect with the local coffee community.
Time & Temp will take over the former Brewbakers space. It’s a compact space – just 45 square metres – with most of that space taken up by the kitchen. There will be a serving counter inside and some casual seating outside.

Given the popularity of Brisbane spots like Sprout, Agnes Bakery (soon to be reborn as Idle), Bella & Tortie, Baker D Chirico and Riser Bread, Young and Cai hope to add something meaningful to the city’s growing bakery scene.

“It’s exciting – I think it’s in the growth phase,” Young says. “People are trying to do something a little different and everyone seems to be doing pretty well. Hopefully we fit into that.”

Time & Temp will open at 337 Sandgate Road, Albion in August.

@timeandtemp_