There’s Paperbark Cake and Saltbush Scones at Hearthe, the Charming New Stanmore Cafe From the Founder of Black Star Pastry

There are more than 15,000 tagged photos on Instagram (not to mention thousands of Tiktoks, and a lot of Wechat action) of what’s arguably Australia’s most famous dessert: Black Star Pastry ’s strawberry-watermelon cake.

Christopher Thé, Black Star Pastry’s (BSP) founder and creator of the fruit-and-dacquoise-layered beauty, sold the business to hotel group Jackalope in 2019. His next move was eagerly awaited and now it’s here: a cafe named Hearthe in a light-flooded former Stanmore butchery. The space, most recently the cafe Mrs Underwood, has been stripped back, leaving beautiful old tiles and high ceilings. Patrons can see the chefs at work in an open kitchen.

Hearthe is by no means Black Star 2.0. Thé has used the past couple of years to crystallise what matters to him: sustainability, community and the use of native ingredients. He’s also passionate about creating cakes suited to Australia’s climate – cakes that will last a few days sitting on the bench. All those elements are distilled into the offering at Hearthe, where visitors will find Thé’s famously beautiful cakes, here inspired by Australia’s landscapes and infused with indigenous ingredients. (He’s worked with, and learnt from, various Indigenous groups and suppliers.)

One creation he’s particularly excited about is the Geraldton wax cheesecake. The baked goat’s-curd cheesecake is flavoured with desert lime, and has a strawberry gum biscuit, all crowned with pretty Geraldton wax bubbles.

“Geraldton wax is one of my favourites,” Thé tells Broadsheet. “It has such a great fragrance – fresh and green.”

He’s also created an edible riff on paperbark. It starts off with a filo pastry that resembles the flaky bark, and it features paperbark dacquoise, macadamia, smoked ganache, a eucalypt caramel and a drizzle of white kunzea honey.

A viennoiserie selection includes classics like croissants, which are baked twice a day, and pains au chocolat – a rum-spiked almond croissant is also on offer. There are also CWA-style scones laced with saltbush.

Hearthe offers a menu of creams. And the inspiration behind it is curious.

“I was fortunate to travel [in] Austria a few years before Covid and went to the Sacher hotel [home of the famous Sacher torte ],” says Thé. “A classic cake like that, it’s rich and it’s dense and you eat it with some whipped cream on the side. It’s a very classic way of eating cake. But you can also order that cake from across the world to be delivered. It’s possibly a little bit dry by the time it gets here, but it can be done. So that really intrigued me, [as] we’re working towards having that kind of practicality with our cakes,” he says, referring not the idea of sending cakes overseas, but rather creating varieties that hold up a few days outside the fridge. “What we’re doing feels like that older style of cake, where instead of the cream being incorporated inside the cake, it’s on the side.”

There are a few vegan options, including a classic cream, a wattleseed cream and a cream with hibiscus and white peach swirl, as well as a trad dairy-based whipped cream.

And while Hearthe is mainly targeting grab-and-go customers, it also offers a native ingredient-heavy cafe menu.

Alongside a bacon and egg roll dressed in a bush tomato relish, or granola with wattle and saltbush seeds, dig into Akoya oysters Kilpatrick with sea blight; rice congee with smoked barramundi dumplings; and fried yam hash with hot-smoked salmon, coriander seeds and warrigal greens.

Coffee comes from Little Marionette, and there’s also beer and wine by the glass, and cocktails.

Thé has implemented a raft of sustainability measures, and is building towards becoming carbon zero. Food scraps are composted out back or used in the kitchen (leftover espresso shots are added to brownie mix, unsold croissants go into the base of cheesecakes). Come March, cakes will be sold in sugarcane packaging that breaks down in compost or landfill.

“What I think is important is to have a program in place, a journey, that you kick off and take chunks out of as things progress and you become more stable,” says Thé.

And he reckons he’s almost come full-circle with the launch of Hearthe.

“After I finished at Black Star, I did everything I thought I wanted to do after that part of my life. Ultimately, I just came to understand I was in the right place all along. Running a little shop for a community and knowing everyone and feeding people.”

Hearthe
16 Douglas Street, Stanmore
0401 680 393

Hours:
Daily 7am–4pm

hearthe.com.au
@hearthe_aus