First Look: Get $3 Za’atar-Topped “Lebanese Pizza” at Halloumi Bakery in Brunswick

While some parts of Melbourne constantly reinvent themselves, others manage to hold tight to tradition. In Brunswick, Brunswick East and Coburg, where waves of development have brought new energy to the streets, one thing has remained constant: Lebanese food.

There’s everything from sit-down restaurants Rumi , Tiba’s Restaurant and Mankoushe to salt-of-the-earth bakeries and food stores such as Zaatar , Balha’s Pastry and, of course, the Hot-Listed A1 Bakery. Halloumi Bakery, in Brunswick’s Union Square shopping centre, is a new player in this well-established scene.

Every day from 4.30am, you’ll find owner Zackariah Saad at the shop making dough for manoush, a soft, topped flatbread he and many others affectionately refer to as Lebanese pizza. “It’s a simple dough – just like it’s made back home – but it’s all about the technique, timing and love that goes into it,” he says.

Like many of its counterparts, Halloumi Bakery is rooted in family. His mother Najwa Saad and his wife Nawal Hussein float between the shopfront and kitchen, loading haloumi handpies and manoush into a large-scale oven at the back of the bakery throughout the day. Zackariah’s younger cousin helps on their days off from school and another cousin, the AFL player Adam Saad, offers constant support.

The affordable menu is homely and simple, with Lebanese pizza, wraps, hand pies, sesame kaak (ring-shaped bread) and hot drinks.The za’atar pizza is $3 and the most expensive menu item, the falafel wrap, comes in at $12. It’s made up of food Zackariah grew up with, and things he serves his friends and family. “Whatever works in my household, I brought here,” he says. “It’s comfort food.”

The haloumi tomato wrap, for example, is inspired by something Zackariah’s mum and aunties used to make for him and his cousins growing up. The haloumi, honey and sujuk (dry-cured sausage) pizza is what he calls a “backyard idea”. One day he invited his cousins over to try manoush fresh from the oven he set up in his garden. A little drizzle of honey over haloumi and sujuk was a hit with Zackariah’s family, just as it is with Halloumi Bakery customers.

Halloumi Bakery
Shop 13/190 Union Street, Brunswick
No phone

Hours:
Mon; Wed to Fri 7am–3pm
Sat & Sun 7.30am–2pm

@halloumibakery