First Look: Find Custard-Filled Sicilian Fried Dough at Kobi Kafe

Within a few months of learning to make cartocci in 2024, Chloe Koufidis was selling 700 a week at markets. A years later, she now produces thousands each week for her wholesale business Dolci Cartocci and her new cafe Kobi.

Kobi Kafe opened at the end of April on a quiet part of Melville Road in Brunswick West. The shopfront belongs to Koufidis’s uncle and was used as a coffee school and coffee machine repair shop by her father Terry Koufidis a decade ago. It’s been sitting empty since then. Now, Koufidis serves espresso drinks and cafe dishes, including Turkish eggs and niçoise salad, alongside her cartocci.

The traditional Sicilian sweet – spiral-shaped doughnut-like pastry that feels like the lovechild of a cannoli and a cinnamon doughnut – is made from yeasted dough that’s wrapped around a rod and then deep fried until it’s crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Cartocci are typically coated in sugar and filled with sweet ricotta, cream or chocolate.

“The custard is our little secret,” says Koufidis. “Although it is not quite traditional – as ricotta is the more traditional filling – we believed the flavour was far superior.” She’s also filled them with matcha, pistachio, and other crowd-pleasing creams. The dough, on the other hand, is classic cartocci. Koufidis even got an Italian pastry chef to help tweak the recipe.

While Dolci Cartocci is her baby, Koufidis had help from her family when she first started selling the pastries at markets. “Coming from a big Greek family, everyone at some point has lent a helping hand and supported in any which way they could,” says Koufidis. And they still do. “I have my entire family doing deliveries all around Melbourne for me every morning.”

They drop her cartocci at some of Melbourne’s leading cafes and sandwich shops. If you can’t make it to Kobi, you can find the custard-filled cartocci at about 40 spots around the city, including Hot-Listed A1 Bakery, 3 Salamis, South Melbourne Market, and Queen Victoria Market’s Market Espresso.

The Brunswick West space has an old-school relaxed feel, with local art, caramel-coloured vintage Tessa furniture and a terrazzo-style floor that nods to the old shopfront and history of the area.

“I wanted to turn the space into a bakery where people could come and watch us make them, although unfortunately it just wasn’t big enough. So we opted to turn it into a cafe,” says Koufidis, who makes the Cartocci at a production space in Coburg. “I hope Kobi can be people’s third place, to quite literally put their feet up, have a coffee and cartocci and breathe a little.”

Kobi Kafe
50 Melville Road, Brunswick West

Hours:
Tue to Fri 7am–3pm
Sat & Sun 8am–4pm

@kobikafe