Coming Soon: Dessert Masters Winner John Demetrios To Open New Venue in Richmond

Have you even made it to Hot Listed bakery Butter Days yet? Dessert Masters winner John Demetrios and his wife, Martina Cissig Demetrios, opened the Malvern shopfront in October last year and sold out in 45 minutes on the first day. And at this year’s Broadsheet Dine Out festival, the bakery’s gigantic $22 cookies led to lines down the street – on a Tuesday.

Now they’re preparing to open something new in Richmond next month, on the same quiet intersection as the London Tavern Hotel. 

“It’s not a Butter Days,” Demetrios says. 

Rather, Lennox Street Local will be a full-service cafe with 20 seats, including lounges and a communal table. “We want to create something a little bit different, a little bit slower than Butter Days, where people can come and hang out for a bit. And it seems like the most sensible way to take Butter Days pastries north of the river.”

Before then, the couple is heading to Denmark and Sweden for some R&D and R&R – a trip that was meant to happen prior to opening Butter Days. Demetrios wants to soak up as much inspiration as he can from various bakeries, and confirms princess cakes and other Scandi goods are likely to appear in the pastry cabinets at Butter Days and Lennox Street Local.

The cafe menu looks closer to home for inspiration. “We want to bring a little bit more Australiana to the menu, so we’re going to focus on really creative jaffles at the same time as our pastries,” Demetrios says. That means jaffles filled with the likes of cacio e pepe, caramelised onion and blue cheese, and tartiflette (potatoes, soft reblochon cheese, bacon, onion). 

Lennox Street Local will open at 253 Lennox Street, Richmond in October.