It was a bit of a moment when Black Star Pastry’s multi-layered strawberry watermelon cake first took over our Instagram feeds. Pure cultural capital, the sight of the melon-y cake – which also has almonds, rose cream and pistachios – on your grid was a sign you were an in-the-know Sydneysider. The sweet slice – still Black Star’s most-requested cake – saw outposts open in Melbourne and internationally. Now, it’s the north shore’s turn.
The just-opened Chatswood kiosk is inside Westfield and is only the second Australian store (out of eight) to offer the bakery’s full range. “It was the longest line Black Star Pastry has ever seen,” general manager Danielle Laskovsky tells Broadsheet about opening day. “A lot of people for the strawberry watermelon cake.”
The new store also offers filled and plain croissants, cheesecakes and chocolate numbers, savoury pies, quiches, and a brand new “kimcheese” toastie. That’s kimchi, mozzarella and gochujang mayo between toasted, buttery sourdough. There are also a few salads if you’re that way inclined.
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SIGN UPThe seasonal mango yuzu layer cake will return for summer, alongside a new (and very artful) dessert: Matcha Ceremony. It comes shaped as a mug, repaired kintsugi-style with a hand-painted crack of gold. Inside the chocolate pastry shell hides matcha mousse and sponge.
The new store’s fit-out also has plenty of wow-factor. The level-five kiosk has a pared-back monochrome look with a futuristic feel. A suspended white light halos around the shop above a five-metre rotating louver counter. “There are three images that the louver can display,” says Laskovsky. “It turns every 90 seconds to show a different picture, [one presents] ‘Black Star Pastry’ translated into the top 10 languages spoken in Australia.” (That’s Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, Italian, English, Greek and Vietnamese.)
A standalone cake-prep area sits to the side of the oscillating counter. A central production kitchen – soon moving to Alexandria – supplies all of Sydney’s Black Star stores, but on-site pastry chefs assemble and complete the finishing touches at each location. Grab your bounty to take away, or pull up one of the 24 seats and dig in.
Black Star Pastry Chatswood
Kiosk K506/1, Westfield Chatswood, 1 Anderson Street, Chatswood
Hours
Mon to Wed 9.30am–6pm
Thu 9.30am–9pm
Fri & Sat 9.30am–6pm
Sun 10am–6pm