Now Open: Fabbrica Bread Shop Lands in Rozelle With Masala Croissants and Metre-Long Focaccias

Fabbrica Bread Shop is the freshest venture from the Love Tilly Group (Palazzo Salato, Ragazzi, La Salut). In a bright street-facing corner of the Maloneys Grocer on Darling Street, it’s their first spot exclusively for baked goods – beyond the temporary lockdown-induced iteration of the bakery at the King Street digs in 2021.

“[For the focaccia] we really wanted to go with the Roscioli vibe in Rome,” the group’s head baker Aniruddha Bhosekar tells Broadsheet, as he layers paper-thin slices of potato over the dimpled dough in the shop’s on-site kitchen. He’s referencing the institution-status restaurant, salumeria and pasticceria in the Campo de’ Fiori. “Every time I see the pizzas on Instagram I think, ‘I have to make that here’.”

Once those metre-long slabs come out of the oven, they’re cooled and sliced open to be filled with mortadella or roasted veggies. At lunch time, they’re laden with antipasto staples or tomato passata before being scorched into puffy pizzas. On Saturdays and Sundays, they are sliced to sandwich Tathra Place porchetta.

The menu from Bhosekar and baker Alyce Bennett (ex- Humble Bakery) will flow with the team’s ongoing experimentation (think prawn toast sfogliatella and wobbly slices of nutmeg-sprinkled custard tart). “We were at King Street doing all [the bread-based baking] the last couple of years, but we couldn’t make croissants. Now we’ve got all the toys.”

Laminated beauties – the classic duo of plain and chocolate croissants plus savoury pastry scrolls – start the day, with focaccias close behind at around 8.30am. Everything is made from scratch, including the puff pastry and croissant dough, which takes a full three days to execute.

Everything is made using local butter and flour, with the plan to partner with regional wheat farmers for a rotating monthly loaf. For the time being, it’ll be Fabbrica’s flagship sourdough on a shelf in Maloneys, which also stocks Fabbrica’s pasta and sauce packs.

Sweets might include Basque cheesecake, salted choc-chip cookies and a banoffee tart heaving with piped cream, while Tathra Place pork sausage rolls and a (currently weekend-only) masala croissant are standout savoury items. Can’t decide? Stick to Bhosekar’s favourite: the potato and confit garlic focaccia. “I snack on it every time it comes out.”

Fabbrica Bake Shop
733 Darling Street, Rozelle

Hours
Daily 7am–sold out

@ciaofabbricabreadshop