First Look: To Be Frank Brings Focaccia Sandwiches and Dulce De Leche “Bombs” to Brunswick East

With the Rumi crew’s Rocket Society, food-focused Fomo Cinemas and Hagen’s Organic Butcher, East Brunswick Village is already much more exciting than most developments. And on Friday May 16, when a new outpost from Collingwood’s To Be Frank officially opens, it will get even better.

The bakery, founded by Lauren Parsons and Franco Villalva in 2019, is known for its flaky croissants, facturas (a laminated Argentinian pastry) filled with dulce de leche, and long-fermented loaves made using the respectus panis method.

The couple opened an Elsternwick location in 2023, but sold it at the end of last year to focus on the north. Now, with two bakeries about a 10-minute drive from each other, the team has split production of bread and pastry between the two sites. All bread for the business is baked at the original Collingwood location and all pastries are made at the new Brunswick East kitchen.

“We should be able to easily produce enough for the two shops, and then potentially more as well,” says Parsons. There’s nothing currently in the works, but she says a third retail shop is on the cards.

Inside the new store, you can see straight into the pastry kitchen where you can watch as the team rolls and laminates pastries. “I’m calling it a cube – a little bit like Lune.”

The team plans to offer more seasonal focaccia sandwiches, and is currently working on a sausage croissant made using product from neighbouring Hagen’s; new pastries have also been added to the line-up. Among them: a cross-laminated croissant “bomb” filled with coconut crème patissiere and dulce de leche, as well as a chocolatine made from croissant dough with cocoa that’s been filled with chocolate from Melbourne chocolate company Cuvee and topped with cacao nibs.

For now, the bakery, which seats 26, will be open Wednesday to Sunday throughout May, with plans to open daily come June.

To Be Frank East Brunswick Village
127–149 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East
No phone

Hours:
Wed to Sun 7.30am–sold out

tobefrankbakery.com.au