Ard Transforms Stanmore’s Old Battery Shop Into a Romantic Little Bakery

I cannot imagine the battery shop to bakery pipeline is a particularly strong one. But that’s all changing on a little Stanmore corner. Ard, Christiana Daaboul’s market pop-up bakery, is now in its permanent home.

“A battery shop is so odd here,” she tells Broadsheet, laughing. “Locals do [know it], but even on Instagram people comment, ‘Is that the old battery shop?’”

Daaboul’s baked goods already have fans. Tens of thousands of them. And if the queues up the street at last weekend’s soft opening are anything to go by, plenty are in Sydney – and she’ll have new ones soon, too.

The creative plant-based bakes all lean Lebanese, Daaboul’s heritage. Zingy lemon olive oil cakes peppered with poppy seeds. Choc-topped baklava with an exceptionally creamy pistachio kataifi filling. Her mum’s shortbread sandwiched with a tart, sticky homemade apricot jam. Cinnamon scrolls and cream-topped pistachio buns. Sesame cakes, stuffed with light-as Chantilly cream laced with tahini and honeycomb – and more.

That line-up is massive for any bakery, but especially for a solo baker in a one-room space doubling as kitchen and shopfront. “[The menu] gets extensive ‘cause I want a few different variations of each. If I’m doing buns, cakes, tarts, cookies, I’m already on like 10 items. So how do I limit it?”

Her energy is seemingly boundless. The battery shop needed to be stripped and deep cleaned. The walls were retiled, the bars came off the windows. Window frames were painted deep red, and an awning to match was hung above the door. A skinny little roller door – also deep red, Daaboul’s favourite – will be pulled up to signal the opening of the coffee window on weekdays.

“I’m thinking 6am, with a bake of the day and coffee running till probably 2pm,” she says. The bake of the day may be a sweet she’s trialling, or something she’s prepping for the weekend. “Just bake what I feel – I don’t want to lose that aspect [of Ard], ‘cause that’s what keeps me happy and drives me to do this. I want to keep that spontaneous element. My buns will be prepped for the weekend on Fridays, so I might do a ‘bun Friday’.”

When Ard officially opens in late January, the weekday coffee window will run from Tuesday to Friday, followed by that whopping offering all weekend.

Before that, Ard has a Christmas bake sale. Whole cakes, cookies and buns are available to pre-order and pick up on Christmas Eve from 9am. Plus, there’ll be a range of the specialty drinks Daaboul’s been working on: tahini caramel cold brew, salted honeycomb matcha, brown sugar lemon yensoon iced tea and more.

Ard adds a sweet, romantic edge to a slice of Stanmore that’s evidently ready for it.

“The street has been divine. A lot of squeals from women, which is so funny to hear. Like, they’d walk off and be like ‘oooh!’ – I love hearing that. I actually squeal if I’m happy, so that’s always nice to hear. That means it’s exciting,” says Daaboul. “I look out of that door and think to myself, ‘I actually did this’. I’m excited, it feels right.”

Ard will officially open at 2a Stafford Street, Stanmore, in late January 2026.

@ardsydney_