Small Batch
As we are in the midst of Melbourne’s 6th lockdown, Small Batch Cellar Door has been the one place that has always lifted our spirits time again and again with not only their amazing coffee but their glorious pastries. It has seen us through the grueling past 18 months of various lockdowns and has since become a permanent feature in our favourites list of places to eat in Melbourne.
Small Batch Cellar Door is located in North Melbourne in an alleyway off the main street. The storefront is no frills - there are no seats, everything is takeaway - fitting for the coronavirus times. The viennoiserie behind the glass cabinet sound as wonderful and intriguing as they look. The first time we arrive, it’s winter 2020. It is a frosty morning and we can’t decide to order, so we leave with coffee, three different croissants and a glistening canele.
And boy, were they awesome. The coffee is still as stellar as ever since their time at Auction Rooms (which they sold to St Ali in 2016) but the pastries simply blew us away. They remind us of our time in Copenhagen - the combination of crispy shardy pastry with a pillowy interior, perfection rolled up in layers of laminated butter and flour. This is now our go-to place for pastries, and we even stake claim that it’s better than the famous Lune (though of course that’s a matter of personal preference).
Since our first trip to Small Batch, we’ve been back more times than we can count, with Noah nicknaming it as “that small croissant place” - probably due to the lack of seating and the small real estate of the shopfront. We’ve tried practically everything on the pastry menu, and the beauty of it is that menu bar a few staples is ever changing, so we are always intrigued and excited to try the new flavors. The man behind the genius of these pastries is Charlie Duffy.
Through the various lockdowns, it has been our special treat whenever we feel down or unmotivated to start the day and are ever so thankful we live within the 5km radius. We take the croissants home and head immediately upstairs, devouring them quicker than the journey to and fro - a testament of how delicious they are and also our greed. Noah somehow always chooses the biggest divided pieces despite him being the smallest. He dances around as he eats the croissants (a sure sign of his approval) and even does a flip after biting into an apple pastry “look Daddy, I’m an apple turnover”.
In between lockdowns, we make numerous introductions to our friends & family, happy to share the secret of this tiny warehouse roller door. There’s a saying that food is best enjoyed when shared in the company of loved ones, and that is even more true when the food is this good and the business has such a wonderful ethos of ethical and sustainable practices.
Our favourites include the chocolate & wattleseed croissant, Davidson plum & vanilla bean cruffin, fermented chilli & cheese twist, koji caramel with macadamia croissant, poached pear croissant with vanilla custard, and most recently, the Tiramisu croissant. Do yourself and get a pastry. And a coffee too, of course.
Photographed on Contax G1 & Nikon FM2 on Kodak Portra 400 and Sony A7iii with Contax 50 1.4.