We have strong opinions about butter. You probably suspected that.
And if you’ve ever eaten with a wooden fork and wished you hadn’t, you’ll understand why we’re particular about the cutlery too.
When you run a family-owned regional bakery that hands over thousands of pastries, loaves, savouries and coffees each week, you spend a surprising amount of time thinking about how to hand them over.
Preferably without squashing anything.
If you’re a local, you probably know the routine. Order and pay at the counter, collect your food and drinks, then head off or find a table and settle in. That’s what we mean by a counter-service bakery. Food from the cabinet comes packed the same way whether you’re heading home or heading for a table.
That keeps ordering and collection straightforward and helps our team keep the queue moving. It also means anything you don’t finish is already packed to come with you. An optimistic concern, perhaps, but we like to be prepared.
We do have a small dine-in menu, with dishes served on plates. For the pastries and savouries you’ve been eyeing in the cabinet, though, the box is part of the arrangement.
Good things come in considered packaging
You might have questions about how long our sourdough process takes, whether we use sustainable flour or if our eggs are pasture-raised. (In order: up to 48 hours, yes we do and 100% — locally produced by The Good Dozen in Crows Nest. You can meet the good eggs here.)
Occasionally, a curious human also asks about what their food comes in. And honestly, we welcome the chance to nerd out a bit on packaging and sustainability.
We’ve spent plenty of time looking into cup coatings, cardboard and how everything holds up once there’s food or coffee involved.
Here’s what we’re proud to use:
Hot coffee cups with an aqueous coating that are home compostable.
Clear cold cups that are also compostable (for all your iced caffeine needs).
Paper bags to get your loaf home (minus the bit you may pull off on the way).
Cardboard boxes and greaseproof paper for our sweet pastries and savouries.
Cutlery made using coffee grounds (a second career in hospitality, we like to think).
Bamboo straws for cold drinks (so they don’t disintegrate before you finish your drink).
A few things we won’t fold on
Packaging has a fairly demanding job description. It needs to be suitable for food, hold up during a busy service, fit in our storage and make sense for our small business.
It also needs to get your pastry home looking like the pastry you chose - especially for our catering menu.
We put a lot of work into what’s inside the box. It makes sense to give the box some thought too. We’re proud of these choices and happy to share a little of the thinking behind them.
