Remember that weird time when Gladys Berejiklian would talk on TV every day at 11am, and restaurants and cafes all started turning into hectic, big-flavoured bakeries to lure us out of our PJs? We’ve all but forgotten about the former. But we won’t soon forget those cream-filled Roman buns at Fabbrica’s pop-up bread shop any time soon.
It turns out the Love Tilly group (Ragazzi, La Salut) hasn’t forgotten about them, either. So, Matt Swieboda, Scott McComas-Williams and co will open a bricks-and-mortar sequel to their lockdown bakery this August – but with 24 seats, Little Marionette coffee and a tight list of wine, beer and spritzes to sip in the sun.
“We honestly didn’t expect the response we got on the first day of the pop-up,” says group head baker Aniruddha Bhosekar. “It was a Saturday, and there was like, a line across King Street and Elizabeth Street full of people waiting for sausage rolls … We realised this could be a thing.”
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SIGN UPMoving inside the forthcoming Maloneys Grocer on Darling Street in Rozelle (it’ll be the biggest one in Sydney), the new spot will see Bhosekar and Alyce Bennett (ex-Humble Bakery) roll out all the sweet heavy-hitters from the pop-up. Yes, there will be Roman cream buns. But also chocolate-filled bomboloni, banoffee tarts and sticky-sweet morning buns.
Then there’s the savoury stuff, including those sell-out sausage rolls (filled with Tathra Place pork), slabs of focaccia and a line-up of Fabbrica sangas – perhaps filled with deli meat, pork cotoletta, chicken schnitzel or veg.
Bhosekar says bread will be “front and centre” – including sourdough fermented over 72 hours using three different flours from Gunnedah’s Wholegrain Milling, baguettes and miche loaves.
Bhosekar is also using the bigger, dedicated space to weave his Indian heritage into the mix. “We’re going to try and make some masala croissants, which will have a potato stuffing inside, like a dosa. Also butter chicken pies are something we’ve repeatedly discussed in our brainstorming sessions.”
It’s been a bumper year for the Love Tilly Group. In March it opened a spin-off of its CBD pasta shop on the ground floor of Balmain’s historic Exchange Hotel. Then it followed up with its big, dreamy trattoria, Palazzo Salato, on Clarence Street in the city in April. Speaking to Broadsheet earlier this year, McComas-Williams also hinted at the opening of a Spanish-inspired bar below Salato, with more details to come.
Fabbrica Bread Shop is set to open at 733 Darling Street Rozelle in August 2023.