First Look: Time After Time Sells 150 Melbourne-Inspired Black Croissants Daily

Chef Mino Han’s new cafe and bakery Time After Time opened at the start of the month and is already selling out of its signature black croissants before noon. The chef is best known in Melbourne for pasta bar Alt and his appearance as “Melbourne's Best” on Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars. Rather than an ode to Cyndi Lauper, the new cafe is named for its philosophy, he says. “Honest things done right, time after time.”

That approach underpins everything here, from the 4am baking routine to the minimal menu of simple dishes cooked to order. “We bake all the croissants, sourdough and baguettes ourselves every morning,” he says. “No tricks, no second-day bread. Just consistency. That’s how I started and that’s how I want to keep going.”

It’s a return to where Han’s hospitality career began. Before Alt, he ran a cafe and wine bar in Mentone called Bar Audrey. “I missed trading during the day,” he says. “Alt is dark and moody, and I love it, but I missed meeting people in the morning, talking over coffee.” When the Howey Hotel’s landlord, a long-time Alt regular, offered him a space, Han saw an opportunity to build something that felt slower and more personal. “I didn’t try to make it fancy,” he says. “I just wanted to create a place people can build a routine around.”

The menu reflects that simplicity: folded eggs with avocado; a kingfish niçoise salad; and a breakfast plate with soft-boiled eggs, house baguette, saffron butter and Emmental cheese. Every dish is neat, fresh and unfussy. “I like doing the details myself,” Han admits. “It’s simple food, but it has to look just right.”

But it’s the relatively out-there charcoal croissants that have brought in the crowds. The inky-black pastries are inspired by popular viennoiseries found in Seoul, where Han runs four pizza shops and Melbourne-style brunch cafe Ummd. During a blind tasting, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between a regular croissant and a charcoal croissant. The charcoal is mostly used for aesthetics, with Han taking inspiration from Korean cafes such as Gentle Monster’s dessert brand Nudake, known for coloured doughs and stark gothic colour combinations. 

“I wanted to bring some of the energy of Seoul and Tokyo cafes to Melbourne,” Han says. “Melbourne deserves that.” 

A Melbourne-brunch-inspired charcoal croissant topped with ricotta, berry coulis, fresh figs and honey is the runaway hit. On one day of trade, Han says the team sold 150. It’s joined by a matcha-topped charcoal croissant with custard and shards of matcha butter, and an equally dramatic black cocoa version. 

There’s Tone Lane coffee and matcha, but the drink to order is the Time Traveller: a cold-filter coffee shaken over ice with cream and orange zest, inspired by the layered “cream coffees” Han drinks in Seoul. “It’s my take on something that connects both worlds,” he says – much like Time After Time itself, which stitches together Han’s lives in Seoul and Melbourne.

Time After Time
7 Howey Place, Melbourne
0420 515 947

Hours:
Daily 7.30am–3.30pm

@timeaftertime_mel