First Look: The Potts Point Buzz Already Surrounds The Grumpy Baker & Bar

Potts Point is easily one of Sydney’s top suburbs for a bit of buzz. There’s the Llankelly Place laneway kept busy by Pina, Dear Sainte Eloise and Tacos Tacos Tacos. Then the vibe-heavy block with Teta’s, Primary, Piccolo and Caravin. Closer to the water is The Apollo and Fratelli Paradiso. All charming, refined – and quite relaxed in feel. Now there’s a new player, and it fits the brief perfectly: The Grumpy Baker & Bar, open all day on Macleay Street.

“Grumpy by day, grumpy by night, with a happy hour in between,” owner Michael Cthurmer tells Broadsheet. That means brekkie classics from 7am: avo and feta on toast, eggs-your-way, hotcakes and shakshuka, supported by the longstanding bakery business’s pastries, muffins and burek. At night, the vibe’s purely Middle Eastern.

“It’s everything that my dad grew up eating and then would cook for us,” Lily Cthurmer, Michael’s daughter, says. Lily manages all 12 Grumpy locations, which span Sydney and extend to Newcastle and Bilpin. This is the team’s second go at a bar, after running one in Vaucluse 12 years ago. Why are they having another crack now? Location, location, location.

They’ve overhauled the old Macleay Street Bistro space, moving six interior walls, changing the entrance structure and rough-rendering the curving interior walls that arch over the cave-like space. Whopping jars of pickled watermelon, tomatoes and cucumbers glow above a small kitchen, with a row of bar seats that let you look in.

The share-style dinner menu caters to everyone. Challah is baked “then and there”, coming hot out of the oven with a revved-up side of harissa butter. And veggies take a front seat. Eggplant tops tahini, and honeyed carrots top ricotta; while a whole cauliflower is roasted in ras el hanout, a spice blend that translates to “head of the shop” in Arabic.

“It’s a lot of my background, my sister-in-law’s food that she cooks for us, a lot of my parents’,” Michael says. “Things that have gone through our family. Some of them we made with a bit of a twist, some of them we left as it is ’cos it’s good as it is.”

Zesty chicken skewers join Romanian beef kebabs, plus Michael’s personal favourite: barramundi chraime. The fish arrives in a copper pot, sauced-up in the deep-red spicy stew of capsicum, tomato and carrot. “A couple of Moroccan friends were in, and as soon as I saw them ordering it, I had to add more chilli into it because I can’t do it for the average person. They were like, ‘we could’ve had more’,” laughs Michael.

“Every person has loved something different: each person picks this dish and that, but in general everybody comments, ‘we just love the fact that we can eat such a variety’.”

Michael’s wife and Grumpy Baker co-founder Deborah Cthurmer put together the tight list of mostly Aussie small-batch wines, and a little bar pumps out classic cocktails. But that’s not all. “If someone wants a coffee, they can get a coffee at seven, eight o’clock at night – just like you can in the Middle East,” Michael says.

That’s a hot offer in Sydney, where it’s exceptionally difficult to get a good cuppa post 3pm. “When we bought here, we were just going to do Grumpy,” Lily says. “But it’s a waste of space, being in this location and not doing nights.”

With tables spilling out from the small terrace onto the street, and no break in service – save for a short stint with a happy hour-style snack menu – this patch of Sydney gets another slice of the buzzy all-day thing it does so well.

The Grumpy Baker & Bar
73 Macleay Street, Potts Point
0456 544 364

Hours:
Mon & Tue 7am–6pm
Wed to Sun 7am–10pm

grumpybaker.com.au
@grumpybaker