The Five Things You Should Know About AP House, the Exemplary Rooftop Bakery at Paramount House

Highly anticipated All Purpose Bakery opened its cafe and bakery AP House in Surry Hills’ Paramount House in February, rather than its intended home in Darlinghurst (more on that below). But Broadsheet is already hedging its bets it’ll become one of Sydney’s favourite spots for baked goods. Here are five things you should know about the venue:

It’s on a nice rooftop
“I’ve found my second home up here,” says head baker and one-quarter of the AP team Dougal Muffet (ex-Ester and Moonacres Kitchen in Robertson, Southern Highlands).

And it’s easy to understand why. The bakery and cafe resides atop the Paramount House Hotel, next door to the Paramount Recreation Club. Littered with potted greenery, the open-air, 40-seater venue is an urban oasis that offers a pretty view of the cityscape. There are also cute aqua awnings ready to be pulled out on both sunny and rainy days, making it an all-weather rooftop terrace.

It’s run by an all-star line-up
The four-member crew behind AP Bakery is an all-star line-up that have either previously worked together or are co-owners of existing (and very excellent) venues around town.

Members include Ping Jin Ng (owner and founder of Golden Age Cinema & Bar and Paramount House Hotel), Russell Beard (owner and founder of Reuben Hills and Paramount Coffee Project) and Mat Lindsay (owner and chef at Poly and Ester; and co-owner of Shwarmama with Beard and Jin Ng) and of course, Muffet.

“The very cool thing about our partnership is everyone brings a unique skill set to the table,” Muffet says.

All the baking is left to Muffet, given that he grew up on a wheat farm in the central-west town of Forbes and has “always been interested in where the grain is coming from, what they are, and how they’re being grown because it’s not all the same”. Using his expertise, Lindsay is left to oversee the creative cafe-style menu, while Beard is all over the venue’s coffee offering, bringing in roasts from Reuben Hills.

The bread is very, very good
While common wheat varietals such as rye, spelt and barley are used, Muffet’s also using lesser-known old-world wheat varietals, such as one called Ford from his hometown of Forbes, that will be milled daily using the bakery’s in-house American stone mill.

AP Bakery is also sourcing small-batch freshly milled wheat from Woodstock Farm in Berrigan, a NSW town near the central Victoria border. Plus, the crew is about to receive the first wheat harvest for the year grown by local farmers, based in the central NSW town of Narromine. “They used a method in which the land isn’t tilled and the wheat grows in and among native pasture,” says Muffet, who believes the method results in more complex flavour and nutrition, with minimal impact on the environment.

The result: a mix of daily fresh baked bread, wheeled out on racks for display, ranging from baguettes and tartine country loaves to toasted sesame and burnt fenugreek loaf and Jerusalem bagels. The taste? Fabulous.

There are more standout dishes
The all-day menu has a good mix of light and big options, as well as sweet and savoury. One of those being the crisp bacon burger. As the name suggests, it’s layers of extra thin and crispy bacon with a harissa-style hot sauce sandwiched between a spongy fermented potato ciabatta, smothered with aromatic curry leaf butter.

Something simpler, but equally fun, is the “lazy omelette” with potato and fried curry leaves. There’s plenty of ready-to-go options too, including very good plain buttermilk croissant and roasted buckwheat and dark-chocolate croissant. We’re also taken by the should-I-have-two (yes) Aleppo pepper and cheese scrolls.

It won’t be in this location forever
When the team announced they were going to open a bakery together in February 2021, the original plan was for a March 2021 opening in a beautiful sandstone cottage in Darlinghurst, but Covid-related and structural delays have since pushed that date back. Muffet assures Broadsheet the work to open an AP Bakery outpost in the original location is still on the cards. “We’ll get that done,” he says.

apbakery.com.au
@a.p.bread