Artisan bakery Baker Bleu to open second Sydney shop (with more on the way)

The long-anticipated Sydney sequel to popular Double Bay food destination Baker Bleu is finally on the way, with a new store opening at Bondi Beach in December and a northside sibling to follow next year.

Mike and Mia Russell launched the artisan bakery in Melbourne in 2016 before bringing Baker Bleu to Sydney’s Double Bay in 2022. With long queues at Guilfoyle Avenue for its dark crust sourdough, sandwiches and naturally leavened pastries, Mike Russell said customers have long asked the couple about the where and when of Baker Bleu’s next move in Sydney.

“We’ve taken the old site of Le Paris Go Cafe site on Hall Street near [cafe and bookstore] Gertrude & Alice,” Mike Russell said. The newly built site at 34 Hall Street will use the successful grab-and-go template of its South Yarra outlet in Melbourne. The bread will be baked at Double Bay, but the sandwiches – such as the wagyu salt beef and the ham and gruyere ficelle – will all be made and assembled onsite at Bondi.

Customers will be able to grab a loaf of sourdough, croissant, bagel, Vegemite cheese knot or almond and yuzu croissant. The site will also have about 20 seats outside. With a sizeable design and fitout planned, Russell anticipates a late December opening.

As for northside expansion, the couple has narrowed their gaze on a few potential sites on the lower north shore, with plans to open in the first half of 2027. There’s also an appetite to take Baker Bleu elsewhere in Sydney. “100 per cent the inner-west,” Russell said.

Russell said it was important that stores have their own identity and work with the local customer base. Bondi, for instance, will sell soft-serve ice-cream, something not available at Double Bay but ideal for its beach catchment. They’ve successfully trialled soft serve at South Yarra: “We do a seasonal panettone flavour, and one with dehydrated croissant crumb and olive oil.”

As for the quirks of Australian bread consumption, Baker Bleu discovered – for its stores at least – sales are affected less by seasonal changes of weather as much as quieter periods driven by school holidays when families head away on holidays.

Russell took a less-travelled route to a career as a baker. He started in advertising, developed a love of bread making while working in the pastry section at Rockpool Bar & Grill, and schooled himself in the sourdough arts at the oven-face at Sonoma, Iggy’s and Baker D. Chirico in Melbourne. Russell said they all provided inspiration, evident in Baker Bleu’s “really broad range”.

When Baker Bleu expanded to Sydney in 2022, the couple teamed up with chef Neil Perry. That partnership ended last September when a joint statement from the restaurateur and bakery announced Perry had stepped away from the Double Bay bakery to focus on his neighbouring restaurant interests.

The demands of the growing business remain a seven-day-a-week proposition for Russell. “I’m in Sydney every week.”