Dining out with Baker Bleu

At Baker Bleu, we're proud of the kitchens, grocers and dining rooms across both cities who put our loaves on their tables and counters daily. Almost a decade in, that list features a cast of names we couldn't have imagined when we started.

Some of the venues and dining rooms we supply are run by people we've known for years. Others started with a quieter moment, like the morning Andrew McConnell walked into the original Elsternwick bakery, and asked if he could stock our bread in his restaurants. That conversation led to a nine year long friendship, and the uptake across other Melbourne and Sydney restaurants since then has been humbling.

However the story started, the quality of our bread and our signature dark crust remains the same. The loaves bound for our restaurant partners are baked alongside the ones going on our own shelves. Same flour, same long ferment, and the same hands shaping them that morning. The bread you know and love from our bakeries is the same sourdough you'll find at dinner that night, served at some of the best restaurants across the country.

Among many of the dining rooms that we make an appearance in are Carlton Wine Room and Bar Carnation.

Carlton Wine Room is one of those places that's quietly run the inner north for years. One of Carlton’s most iconic spots on the corner of Faraday Street, with a killer wine list and a menu to match. Our country wheels have featured daily on their counter top since they opened. A roll torn from the wheel for every diner, every day.

Bar Carnation is another one worth a mention. A more recent newcomer to Fitzroy but a corner spot that's made its mark. The kind of place where seasonal produce is heroed at its peak, and our sourdough is perfect fresh or grilled as part of dishes on their ever-changing menu.

There's something particular about eating out in Melbourne and Sydney. A long lunch that runs into the afternoon. A bottle of wine that turns into two. The bread that arrives early and disappears slowly across the table. The city's dining rooms have built a way of eating that demands great bread, and we're proud and humbled to be part of it.

So if you're planning a night out, here are some of the places you’ll find us.

A handful of Melbourne's most considered kitchens carry our signature dark crust.

You’ll find us at : Attica. Cutler & Co. Cumulus Inc. Gimlet. Di Stasio Citta. Bistro Guillaume at Crown. Carlton Wine Room and Bar Carnation.

Everyone’s favourite locals. Enjoy our signature dark crust beside a starter or a soft roll torn from a country wheel and served with house butter.

The Builders Arms. The Botanical Hotel. Boccaccio Cellars. Bistra.

Our bread also turns up in the smaller moments, as the bread on your local shop's signature sandwich.

You’ll find our sourdough in the sandwiches at : Maker & Monger. Saint Haven. Market Lane Coffee at Prahran Market and Victor Churchill Melbourne.

Just in case you’re not close to one of our bakeries, our bread is also stocked across some of Melbourne's better grocers and providores.

Morning Market in Fitzroy and Prahran, who also use our bread for their daily sandwiches.

Leaf Stores across Elwood, Armadale and Hawthorn. Toscano's in Kew, Hawksburn and Victoria Gardens Richmond. Wild Things in Fitzroy North. Meatsmith in Fitzroy and St Kilda and Boccaccio Cellars.

Sydney has its own rhythm. Long mornings over breakfast, harbourside lunches, an early drink that turns into a late dinner. We're proud to feature on some of the city's most iconic menus.

You'll find the loaves on the table at the Sheraton Grand Hyde Park, where breakfast unfolds slowly and the bread basket lands early. At the InterContinental Double Bay, a few minutes' walk from our own Sydney bakery, where the kitchen has been carrying our loaves since the day we opened across the road. At Felons in Manly, looking out across the harbour. And at Room Ten in Potts Point, the kind of small, considered room that's quietly become a regular for those in the know.

For taking home, our bread has found its way onto the shelves of some of Sydney's best providores. Victor Churchill, stocks our bread across Woollahra, Northbridge and Alexandria. Simon Johnson, the city's long-running food merchant, carries it at the same three locations. And out at Picton, a little further from town, Pheasant's Nest Produce keeps a few loaves on hand for those who come to find them.

The rooms and the shelves carrying our bread in Sydney are some of the best in the city, and we’re proud of our long standing relationships.

In both cities, it's a list that keeps growing, slowly, the way most things at the bakery do. Our wholesale relationships have grown the same way the bakery has, one good conversation at a time, usually started by a chef who wanted the bread on their table and asked us to provide it.

That part of the business keeps us in good company, alongside producers and kitchens we respect, and it means the bread reaches people who might never make it to one of our bakeries themselves. Someone sitting down to dinner at a Sydney hotel, grabbing a sandwich at a Fitzroy grocer, or eating their way through a long lunch in Carlton, ends up with the same sourdough we made for our bakeries that morning.
 
So next time you're booking somewhere for dinner, have a scan of the list. And if you're a chef, a grocer, or a restaurateur thinking about putting our bread on your table, get in touch. We'd love to talk.