NewsBite

Advertisement

A bakery-cafe on Parramatta Road shouldn’t work. So what makes this one special?

Kimcheese focaccia, glistening croissants and pandan pastries steal the show at thriving cafe Pantry Story in Stanmore.

Lenny Ann Low
Lenny Ann Low

The welcoming, art gallery-like space.
1 / 9The welcoming, art gallery-like space.Dominic Lorrimer
Kimcheese focaccia.
2 / 9Kimcheese focaccia.Dominic Lorrimer
Honey butter croissant.
3 / 9Honey butter croissant.Dominic Lorrimer
Brisket hand pie.
4 / 9Brisket hand pie.Dominic Lorrimer
Pandan bun with custard.
5 / 9Pandan bun with custard.Dominic Lorrimer
Pandan cookie.
6 / 9Pandan cookie.Dominic Lorrimer
Croissant.
7 / 9Croissant.Dominic Lorrimer
8 / 9 Dominic Lorrimer
Iced maple chai latte.
9 / 9Iced maple chai latte.Dominic Lorrimer

Cafe$

In some ways, Pantry Story, a new bakery-cafe on Parramatta Road at Stanmore, shouldn’t work. Who walks along Parramatta Road looking for a cafe? Who wants to go to a cafe beside a busy road with six lanes of traffic and little parking?

Turns out, plenty of people. On the weekend, queues for Pantry Story, which opened in February and offers baked goods with an Indonesian and Japanese influence, stretch out the door.

Owners Tiara Sucipto and Hari Wibowo, who grew up in Pontianak in Borneo and
Semarang in Java respectively, did not expect it.

Advertisement
Pandan bun with custard.
Pandan bun with custard.Dominic Lorrimer

“An influencer came in the first week,” Wibowo says. “We didn’t know they were an influencer, but they posted about us and it was so busy.”

Locals, people flying past in cars and buses or anyone attracted to light, buttery and still warm pastry akin to a foofed bronze doona is lining up for creamy garlic cheese knots, chunky beef brisket hand pies or chubby pork sausage rolls with pear and caramelised onion.

All of Pantry Story’s baked goods, whether sesame seed-flecked savouries, sugar-coated sweet treats or fancy golden filled croissants are displayed on a big, round cream table in the middle of the room. Each item sits on a plate with a name card like an edible sculpture exhibition. Orders are taken at the counter.

“The idea with a round table is when we go back home we always gather with our families at a round table with the lazy susan in the middle,” Wibowo says. “A lot of our menu is family-style comfort food.”

Advertisement

Stroll the table’s diameter to consider glistening shell-like croissants, grass-green pandan java mochi biscuits (inspired by Wibowo’s favourite dessert klepon, a sweet rice coconut-coated cake ball filled with palm sugar), sea salt chocolate biscuit and three-day kimcheese foccacia made with kimchi jam, cheese, sweet mayo, honey and Japanese shichimi togarashi spice.

Rush in today in the hope they’re serving this week’s special; a prawn and chicken roll with honey yuzu sauce, inspired by hekeng, or crispy prawn roll, a regular snack in Sucipto’s home town.

“Usually it’s prawn and pork but I changed it to chicken for people who don’t eat pork,” Sucipto says.

If they’re gone, or you’re hungry, order the garlic cheese knot, a deceptively savoury twirl of pastry filled with pungent chive-topped gooeyness.

“It’s inspired by Korean garlic bread buns,” Sucipto says. “But then I wanted it in a croissant shape.”

Advertisement
Brisket hand pie.
Brisket hand pie.Dominic Lorrimer

Sucipto is the lead baker and Pantry Story began during lockdown when she started experimenting in the kitchen at home. First, she tried foccacia and brownies, or brochis, combining fudgy chocolate biscuit with mochi inside. Friends loved the food.

When Sucipto and Wibowo, who married during lockdown, posted photos online, orders flowed in.

Using one oven in their Wolli Creek apartment, and baking from 2am, they filled
hundreds of orders – collected outside or at railways stations by new fans. As restrictions eased, they sold the range at markets.

Sucipto developed her baking skills at cooking school, expanding to croissants,
scrolls, pastry knots, sausage rolls and pies.

Advertisement

On the hunt for a production kitchen, they found 336 Parramatta Road, a former seafood restaurant with blue walls, two ovens and a vaulted ceiling.

Iced maple chai latte.
Iced maple chai latte.Dominic Lorrimer

“We liked the kitchen space first but it was really the ceiling,” Sucipto says. “I just love it.”

Wibowo used his interior design skills to paint the beams and walls off-white, install concrete-look flooring, hang soft, cream curtains, install a front counter and rustic wooden benches and create avant-garde tables made from Bunnings outdoor tiles and upturned grey vases.

Pantry Store’s focus is takeaway but people stay to eat with Stitch Coffee brews, tea and cold drinks including iced matcha and coffee.

Advertisement

The neighbours are thrilled. The next-door florist provides arrangements for the big table and an upstairs resident was so enamoured they now work here.

“She said the noise of us opening a cafe downstairs was nothing compared to the planes and passing traffic of Stanmore,” Hari says.

Sucipto smiles. “Opening this shop,” she says, “is a dream come true.”

The low-down

Vibe: Savoury and sweet pastries with Chinese-Indonesian vibes in a welcoming, art gallery-like space on Parramatta Road

Go-to dish: Garlic cheese knot, prawn and chicken roll, Pandan-flavoured biscuit.

Average cost for two: $35, plus drinks

Continue this series

Your April hit list: The hot, new and just-reviewed places to check out, right now
Up next
Inside Sydney’s new late-night supper club, The Caterpillar Club.

Arrive early, stay late: Your plan of attack for Sydney’s super popular new supper club

The Caterpillar Club’s very long bar rarely has a free seat. Here’s how to nab one.

Casa Esquina’s sprawling indoor-outdoor vibe has a special sense of freedom.

This indoor-outdoor Argentinian-inspired grillfest boasts Balmain-to-Buenos Aires vibes

Casa Esquina’s menu includes 10 different dishes from the parrilla, from Gundagai lamb tomahawk chops to a one-kilo dry-aged Ranger’s Valley Black Market rib-eye.

Previous
The deli sandwich with salami, mortadella, provolone and Greek tirokafteri sauce.

These excellent deli sandwiches are perfect for river walks, cycle stops and play dates

Schmick Earlwood riverside shop Ol’ Mates slings big classic sandwiches filled with deli meats, chicken schnitzel, poached chicken, and sausage and egg.

See all stories
Lenny Ann LowLenny Ann Low is a writer and podcaster.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement

Original URL: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/goodfood/sydney-eating-out/a-bakery-cafe-on-parramatta-road-shouldn-t-work-so-what-makes-this-one-special-20240311-p5fbhk.html