Lune Croissanterie

After years of speculation, Melbourne’s Lune Croissanterie has confirmed it will open on Oxford Street in Darlinghurst in mid-2023. It will occupy a 300-square-metre space in Oxford & Foley, a development by property developers Toga reimagining heritage buildings at 60, 90 and 120 Oxford Street with retail and commercial spaces, a boutique hotel, late-night dining and cafes and, of course, Lune.

Lune’s first Sydney store will be behind a heritage façade, and pour out into the adjacent Burton and Foley street laneways. As well as Lune’s signature glass cube – where pastry chefs craft its exacting croissants under climate-controlled conditions – it’ll offer space for customers to linger over coffee and croissants. And Lune Lab, a chef’s table-type experience offered at Lune Fitzroy and South Brisbane, will also be coming to Sydney.

“That Surry Hills, Darlinghurst area is a real hotspot for some of Sydney’s best food operators,” Lune’s director and founder Kate Reid tells Broadsheet. “We saw the site and it was immediately obvious that it was one of the best places we could put Lune in Sydney.”

Lune will sit at the intersection where Oxford, Foley and Burton streets meet, creating a square of sorts, which will be reimagined as al fresco dining space once redeveloped.

“It’s got palm trees and then going down Burton Street, in the springtime the jacarandas flower and the whole street turns purple,” says Reid. “It has a very ‘Sydney’ feel to it.”

The space will be designed so the cube is “visible to more people” than ever before. “Customers who are waiting for their pastries will be able to view it, people that are sitting and dining in will be able to view it,” Reid says. Customers will line up and order in the heritage-listed part of the building, while the kitchen and dining areas will be in a newer space. While the design is inspired by Lune’s signature look, it will also bring in materials specific to the buildings in the area.

Reid has fed what she’s learnt from opening past venues into her first Sydney venue – and is making sure there’s capacity for expansion. “We hope that Sydney loves our pastries, enough to allow for another store at some point in the future, and therefore we're designing and building the space as such.

“When I opened Lune by myself, I just had this crazy, obsessive desire to make the perfect croissant. The original Lune was a 20-square-metre shop on a residential street. I was in there ploughing away, trying to perfect this French pastry. I just never envisaged that I’d open this store in Sydney, in this beautiful heritage building. How wild.”