First Look: An Ex-Tetsuya’s Chef Opens a Little Bakery Just Up From His Surry Hills Wine Bar

It’s hard to comprehend that Sydney could fit – and then support – another bakery. But when a newcomer arrives with an ex-Tetsuya’s chef at the helm, and two award-winning bakers captaining the oven, you know the city will simply squeeze another carby pitstop into the mix. Meet Little River, the 40 Res team’s new Surry Hills bakery.

The bakery officially opens this week, in a space two doors up from the new-ish wine bar. On the front counter, you’ll find deep-brown croissants, danishes and topsy-turvy laminated cinnamon buns lined up on silver trays, with house-baked loaves lining the shelves behind. There are made-to-order sandwiches (including a baguette with nothing but house-made mustard butter and jamon made at Petersham’s Spanish Portuguese Butchery) too, plus pies and sausage rolls.

The bakery (and soon-to-be grocer) is something owners Josh Raine (ex-Tetsuya’s exec chef) and his wife Keliann Zellman had always planned – just not so soon. “When we came up with some limitations on the space itself, we thought ‘Right, well, we’ve already got [an idea of] what we want to do,” Zellman says of the space originally intended as 40 Res’s private dining room. “Let’s go now.”

The kitchen is four times the size of 40 Res’s – a lucky streak that continued when ex-Tetsuya’s colleagues (and married couple) Hannah and Joe Gray reached out. The celebrated bakers – who recently closed Little Sugar, their bakery in Kent – were moving back. “They said, ‘Hey, we’re going to be in Sydney, do you know of anywhere we can bake?’ And Josh was like, ‘Yes I do’.”

The talented team will be baking throughout the day: Hannah on sweet, Joe on savoury and bread. The opening loaves span classic baguettes, sourdough and what’s sure to be a signature, the Big Bird, where pumpkin seeds, brown linseeds and poppyseeds stud a dough that’s an 80-20 split of sourdough and rye. Specials (like a wattleseed and beer loaf using the Motorcycle Oil porter from Young Henry’s) will appear on weekends.

The relationship between the neighbouring spots means the menus will be linked, the bakery’s just as fluid as the wine bar’s – chopping and changing with the seasons, and making tasty work of leftovers.

The Wagyu found in Little River’s bake-at-home “steak bake”, for example, is the same that fills the aperitivo hour croquettes. Duck breast is plated with port jus at 40 Res, with the legs baked into Little River’s pies. Raine’s go-to ingredient – those wattleseeds – power 40 Res’s signature Espresso Martini and a scoop on the dessert menu, while also jazzing up the almond croissant and that weekend-only loaf.

“When I first came to Australia, that was one of the things that I was blown away with,” says Raine. “It’s just got that nutty, almost coffee-like flavour profile. I just fell in love with having that savoury, sweet flavour.”

The daily bakes will be joined by a spread of pantry provisions direct from 40 Res plates – like vinaigrettes, pastas and a lobster bisque base. And the team is curating a spread of products from the producers they work with.

The loop will properly close when a bread and breakfast menu hits 40 Res, so you can take home fresh bread, pastries and more, ready for the next morning. “We’re just keeping the tradition in 40 Res,” says Raine, “and putting it into Little River.” 

Little River
44 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills 

Hours:
Wed to Sat 7am–2pm
Sun 7am–1pm

littleriverbakeryprovisions.com.au
@littleriverbakery_syd