A1 Lebanese Bakery
- Outdoor seating
- Takeaway
- Card payment
- Wheelchair access
- Toilets
- Bakery café
Lune croissants, Lygon Street cannoli and Lebanese bread on Sydney Road.
Photo: Joshua Williams, Pexels License
Melbourne's best-known bakery café was started by a former Formula One aerodynamicist. Kate Reid worked at Williams before turning to pastry, opened Lune with her brother Cam in Elwood, and later moved into a 440-square-meter warehouse in Fitzroy that became the flagship. Each croissant takes three days to make, and by 2025 Lune had seven stores in three states and baked more than two million croissants a year.1
The older strand of the city's baking is Italian. Lygon Street in Carlton, which the City of Melbourne calls Little Italy, has had University Cafe since the Donnini family opened it in 1952, and a Brunetti pasticceria, an Italian cake and pastry shop, on the strip for decades.34 Lebanese, Greek and French bakeries and bagel shops fill in the rest of the map.
Local tip: Go to Lune's Collins Street shop on a weekday at 07:30, when it opens, rather than at the weekend; for a pastry after dark, Brunetti on Lygon Street serves until 23:00, or midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Where these cafés are: Carlton & Parkville (19), CBD (17), Brunswick (4), North Melbourne & Kensington (4), Northcote & Thornbury (4), South Melbourne & Southbank (4), South Yarra & Prahran (3), Fairfield & Ivanhoe (2), Richmond & Cremorne (2), Footscray (2), Elsternwick & Caulfield (2), Hawthorn & Kew (2), Port Melbourne & Albert Park (2), Fitzroy North & Clifton Hill (1), East Melbourne (1), Docklands (1), Armadale & Malvern (1), Fitzroy & Collingwood (1).
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Lune's city shop opened on 2 October 2018 at Shop 16, 161 Collins Street, entered from Russell Street. Before the move to Fitzroy, Kate and Cam Reid shaped 24 batches of croissants a week; in Fitzroy that rose to 240, with 450 planned once the CBD shop opened, at roughly 40 to 45 croissants a batch.2 Queues at the Fitzroy warehouse could reach an hour.2
The Collins Street shop opens at 07:30 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends, and closes at 17:00. The New York Times once suggested Lune's croissant might be the best in the world.1
Brunetti's story starts in 1974, when Pierro Brunetti opened on Lygon Street. The shop moved to Faraday Street in 1985, the Angelé family bought it in 1991, and it returned to Lygon Street in 2013. In 2021 the brothers split the business into two: Brunetti Oro, owned by Yuri Angelé, and Brunetti Classico.4 Fabio Angelé, owner of Brunetti Classico, traces the family's Melbourne story to the 1956 Olympics, when his father came with the Italian team as a chef.5
The City of Melbourne credits Brunetti in Carlton with one of the city's biggest ranges of cakes and pastries.3 The Lygon Street shop at number 380 opens at 06:00 every day and stays open until 23:00, or midnight on Fridays and Saturdays; Brunetti Oro is at 140 Swanston Street in the CBD. Patisserie Madeleine De Proust is at 253 Lygon Street, beside University Cafe at 257.
A1 Bakery has made Lebanese bread, pies and pizza since 1992. Its birthplace and flagship is at 643–645 Sydney Road, Brunswick, and the menu runs from manoush (flatbread baked with toppings) and za'atar breads to falafel and dips.6 It opens daily 07:00–17:00 and has outdoor tables.
On High Street in Thornbury, Taso's Cafe & Patisserie at 695 is a family-owned café serving traditional Greek food with a modern twist, and its own cakes.7 Mile End Bagels at 1 Wilkinson Street, Brunswick, bakes its bagels in a wood-fired oven every day.8 In East Melbourne, Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie at 148 Wellington Parade opens daily 07:00–18:00, and in the city, Schmucks Bagels on Guests Lane opens at 07:00 on weekdays.
Carlton & Parkville has the most bakery cafés, narrowly ahead of the CBD, and no other area comes close. Many in Carlton are weekday-only: Gilbert at 161 Barry Street, Ho Ho's Canteen at 13 Royal Parade and House of Cards at 8 Porters Lane open Monday to Friday. Cafe Commercio at 198 Berkeley Street stays open until 18:30 on weekdays.
Early bakers are spread out. The Local Cafe at 38 Moore Street, Footscray, opens at 05:00 Monday to Saturday, Stathmos at 109 Station Street, Fairfield, at 05:30 on weekdays, and Bean Around Bakery-Café at 350 Queens Parade at 06:00 daily. In the CBD, Kenny's Bakery & Cafe at 53–57 Lonsdale Street opens at 06:30 on weekdays.
By area: CBD South Melbourne & Southbank Carlton & Parkville Fitzroy & Collingwood Brunswick Northcote & Thornbury Richmond & Cremorne
Lune's city shop is at Shop 16, 161 Collins Street, entered from Russell Street. It opened on 2 October 2018 and opens at 07:30 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends, closing at 17:00. Lune's flagship is a warehouse in Fitzroy, and by 2025 the company ran seven stores in three states.
Brunetti at 380 Lygon Street, Carlton, opens at 06:00 every day and stays open until 23:00, or midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Pierro Brunetti first opened on Lygon Street in 1974; the shop spent 1985 to 2013 on Faraday Street. Nearby, Patisserie Madeleine De Proust is at 253 Lygon Street and University Cafe, opened in 1952, at 257.
A1 Bakery has baked Lebanese bread, pies and pizza since 1992 at 643–645 Sydney Road, Brunswick, its flagship, open daily 07:00–17:00 with outdoor tables. For Greek food and cakes, Taso's Cafe & Patisserie is a family-owned café at 695 High Street, Thornbury.
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