First Look: Find the Giant Croissant on President Avenue, Enter Petit Lapin Patisserie

As you drive past a residential corner of President Avenue, you’ll spot a giant golden croissant. It’s a hint at what you’ll find inside the newly opened bakery, where blue panels frame glass doors, gold script spells out the name and a striped awning catches the spring sun. While that oversized sculpture is a compelling reason to pull over, croissants are only part of the story at Petit Lapin Patisserie.

The bakery is the first bricks-and-mortar chapter for husband-and-wife team Edward Nguyen and Thao Thach, who began selling their pastries from home in Canterbury in 2022. Before his kitchen pivot, Nguyen worked in aircraft engineering in Queensland. “I [had] no knowledge about pastry at all,” he says. “Zero, nothing. Never cooked before.”

Nudged into a career change by the pandemic, he studied commercial cookery at Tafe before taking work at bakeries across Brisbane and Sydney. It was during this time he met Thach, and pastry began to click. “When I start doing the pastry job, I like it because it looked so beautiful,” he says. “It looked fascinating.”

The pair soon began baking together at home, selling their sweets through Instagram – at first to friends and family, then to a growing base of regulars. The idea of having a shop of their own was always there. “It’s [been] our dream for, like, forever,” Thach says. “It was not until this year that we were finally brave enough to get out of our comfort zone.”

Now, they’re juggling the cafe with their baby son, taking turns holding him as they duck in and out of conversation and service.

Petit Lapin’s pastry offering is inspired by the couple’s travels through Europe, where they specifically fell for the pastries of France and Germany. That means a counter filled with viennoiserie, the broad family of European breakfast pastries. Flaky, laminated croissants and danishes star, as well as richer, yeasted bakes like brioche. There are classics like plain croissants, and ham and cheese; sweeter creations like an orange and almond croissant; a funky hotdog danish; plus a particularly good pan suisse, its crisp layers filled with vanilla cream and Callebaut chocolate chips. The fruit tart – a pastry basket piled with vibrant slices of strawberry and kiwi – has been the opening favourite.

But Nguyen has another pastry obsession: entremets. The elaborate, multi-layered creations have become his specialty. The name once referred to small dishes served between courses in medieval France; today, it’s used for small-scale mousse cakes.

Nguyen’s versions have delicate shortbread bases and perfectly smooth, glossy domes, or the more intricate have surfaces that flow like the skirt of a tiny ball gown. Beneath the glaze are layers of sponge and cream that pair European pastry techniques with Asian flavours, like mango, yuzu, plus black sesame and matcha. “The decoration is what I love about baking,” says Nguyen. “Even more than the general cooking.”

Rounding out the offering are cheesecakes sold by the slice – Earl Grey, yuzu and classic Basque – and Phin Coffee on the machine. Grown in Vietnam’s highlands and roasted in Sydney, the beans nod to the couple’s heritage.

Just a few weeks in, Petit Lapin already sells out on weekends. Fresh viennoiserie, little layered mousse cakes and a three-minute drive to the water? A dream. “We feel like this is the vibe,” says Thach. “It reminds me of Nice in France, where you go to have pastry, sit at the beach.”

Petit Lapin Patisserie
37 President Avenue, Kogarah
0493 731 719

Hours:
Wed to Sun 7am–2pm

@petitlapinbakery