When the trio behind NYC-style pizzeria My Mother’s Cousin – Sal Senan and brother-and-sister-duo Hussein and Amani Rachid – opened Self Raised Bread Shoppe in 2023, it was to immediate fanfare. Lines of carb-hungry humans snake along a curb in Carlton near daily, braving the wait for hand-rolled doughnuts plump with custard, danishes topped with vanilla cream and berries, and hulking deli sandwiches. Now the team’s going for round three with Snack Shoppe, a walk-up outpost of the bakery in Bexley North.

“You can say [Snack Shoppe] is a spin-off of Self Raised in Carlton – a little brother,” Senan tells Broadsheet. “It’s a smaller shop – an order-at-the-window kind of thing. From the bakery and pastry side, everything will still be made in Carlton and delivered fresh every morning.”

While doughnuts and focaccia sandwiches reign supreme at SRBS, Snack Shoppe’s going to have a different, “slightly elevated” style of sanga. Expect thin, crispy slices of Roman-style focaccia – “stretched on flour and semolina, a little bit different to the way we do it at Carlton” – with an array of toppings; a breakfast muffin stuffed with pastrami and egg; and a “new take” on the schnitzel sandwich, an SRBS favourite.

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Along with the viennoiseries, head pastry chef Sarah Ghantous (ex-Flour and Stone) is overseeing a small range of yet-to-be-revealed Snack Shoppe exclusives. Self Raised’s bespoke blend of coffee – from Reformatory Lab – will make the trip as well, and there’ll be iced Milo on tap and a house-made iced tea.

Snack Shoppe’s window looks out from a newly renovated shop space, on the ground floor of an apartment block just across the road from My Mother’s Cousin. “It just makes sense to stay within the area,” says Hussein. “We’ve had a big, big influx of people visit us in Carlton, and we just wanted to be a bit more available [to them].”

While we think these baked goods are worth queuing for, the team is responding to community feedback. “You don’t want lines to deter people completely,” Hussein says. “It’s a double-edged sword, cos even when you don’t have lines people are like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to go, they’ll probably have a line.’”

Our money’s on a second strip of pavement in south Sydney with a queue of carb-hungry humans.

Snack Shoppe is expected to open at Shop 4, 8/20 Sarsfield Circuit, Bexley North, by mid-February 2024.