When I was 12, I picked out our new house. Well, that’s how it felt to me anyway. Yes, I know it was really my mum who made the decision and handed over the cash. But the second I entered the place, with its rambling, north facing garden, wooden floors and loads of light, I felt at home. Looking back, I think it was that discovery of home that made my adolescence a time of relative sanity. It was also that feeling of having a home that made it so easy, 7 years later, to strike out with no real plan and very little money, enrol myself in art school, and force myself into a place where I would do something productive and wind my way to my own true home. I’m still looking for that home, both metaphorically and literally.
15 Years later and the house is to be sold, at a time when the so-south-other-Canberrans-barely-know-them-suburbs nearby are just starting to furnish themselves with the hip cafés I so cherish so in my new home, inner-city Sydney. It would be trite to say I’m sad to see my home soon go to strangers because now there’s finally somewhere to get a decent macch, but it does add insult to injury. Tuggeranong (or thereabouts), you finally have something to recommend you to those who don’t call you home. Great timing.
Bread Nerds is so new it’s on a street that doesn’t exist on google maps yet. Run by Shane and Sharon Peart of ‘That Bagel Place’ fame, the retail/cafe space is compact, with an industrial-chic aesthetic. They serve sandwiches, pastries, bagels, pizza slices, pies, sausage rolls and coffee and of course, they sell bread. Unfortunately for anyone who doesn’t live in the area, they’re only open Monday to Friday, but they also sell their bread and bagels at farmer’s markets and supply restaurants and cafes.
I can’t go past the Italian dougnut. It’s a delicious, solid morsel and I split it with my mum. Dougnuts never have enough cinnamon in my opinion but this one does. I dunk it in my (weirdly enormous) macchiatto- the smallest cup size they seem to do here is about 250ml. I should’ve taken note of the barista’s slightly puzzled expression when I ordered a macch, a picollo and a cap. Senhor R fares even worse with his picollo, which is basically a slightly strong flat white. He has better luck with his poppyseed bagel with smoked salmon though. I reeeeaaaallly want a sausage roll, but I contain myself. The pies look great too.
There’s a lot of blue-collar business for a Monday morning in an industrial wasteland, and the quality is obviously right up there. I’d love to come back and grab a loaf of bread or a sausage roll to take away, and the cafe is industrial but small enough to be considered cute and cosy – I feel right at home. The price seems right, the staff are friendly, my only criticism is the size of the coffee cups.
What kind of things make you feel at home?
Bread Nerds
4/92 Sawmill Circuit
Hume ACT 2620
02 6260 2062
Monday-Friday
7:00am – 3:00pm
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What makes me feel at home is having my daughter come and visit and share the kitchen with me
jdbigia recently posted…Transport
Silo, Flute, now bread nerds. Is Canberra becoming the bread capital of Australia?
And to answer your question, pyjamas.
Funny you should mention flute, I went there too and they asked me to stop taking photos. So I did. But I’m tossing up whether or not to blog it, ’cause that kinda annoyed me…
That would annoy me! I’d be pretty shocked too.
I went to a bakery once and they saw me taking photos then asked me who I was (giving me sus looks) and I said I was a food blogger, afterwards they gave me a card and were happy to talk about their business.
I guess some people might think you’re from the competition stealing ideas?
Shopchop recently posted…Biota dining re-run
Yeah, that is apparently a big concern. I know that legally I can publish any photos I took before I am asked to stop (unless, say, there is a sign up saying ‘no photos’, that counts as being asked to stop taking photos).
If you run a cafe, it is your cafe, so if you don’t want photos taken, that is your call. I think I probably won’t blog about them, as I don’t have enough photos for an entire post and also I feel weird publishing photos if they don’t want their business photographed. Also, their food is pretty damn photogenic, I sorta don’t want to share it with the world if they are gonna be so precious about their store…
What makes me feel at home is being with family, catching up and dining with them.
June Summers recently posted…kimkardashiantaped.com
Awwww… lovely post. What makes me feel at home? My books, my boy and my favourite old wooden spoon.
SarahKate recently posted…A homesick American post
Now I imagine you hugging your wooden spoon as you drift off to sleep…
Oooh how exciting, my friends and I were just talking about going there! I hope to go next week. Great pics btw!
Shopchop recently posted…Brunch @ Urban Pantry
Really nice breads (bagels and ciabatta) but suggest that it needs to lift it’s game a bit (it does have a sign “Cafe”) for those of us who aren’t tradies working in the area: would have liked a plate for my sandwich — and should it have been cut in half (the ciabatta is HUGE). Sandwiches aren’t cheap ($8. is pricey given that this place is in the middle of an industrial complex — and not in the middle of Civic) — and the fillings are minimal. Not worth the trip – unless you ARE a tradie working in the area.
Hi Jes. Yeah, I think there are a few bugs to work out. My macch was more of a flat white, for example. Great place to grab a bakery bite or a coffee- in context of that particular part of town.