Cairns bagel store Bury Me Standing proves popular with locals

The city’s newest bakery is getting hammered as customers go mad for bagels – and the sellout craze looks like it is here to stay.

A HUNGER for bagels in Cairns has been met with mixed emotions for the city’s latest bakery which has sold out of product almost every day it has traded.

Bury Me Standing Bagels, a family-owned bakery has taken Cairns foodies by storm since it opened on October 14.

Owners Alesha Peckels, an artist, and Cohen Bassingthwaighte, a qualified baker have been overwhelmed with the reception their Grafton St store has received.

Ms Peckels said since opening, the couple had been selling out up to 400 items including bagels, doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, within hours.

Alesha Peckels at the new Bury Me Standing Bagels shop in Cairns. Picture: Brian Cassey

“We haven’t even had a chance to have some ourselves,” she said.

The store operates four days a week, from 7.30am to 12.30pm, but Ms Peckels said despite the demand, there wasn’t much room to grow.

“A bagel is not something we can whip up, it takes about three hours and we do all our baking overnight.

“But we also just have no more room in the kitchen, we’re at capacity.”

The couple opened their first store in Hobart in 2012, which was still operating, but the pandemic drew them back to family and the Far North and Ms Peckels said she always knew they would open a store in Cairns.

“We’re very grateful for the reception, we thought it would be a soft opening but we’re getting people lining out the door in the mornings,” she said.

“We’ve got some negative feedback because we’ve been selling out and people have missed out. But we just can’t do anymore at the moment, and although we’re open four days a week, there is always a full day of preparation, so it’s really like a full-time job.”

Bury Me Standing on Grafton St, Cairns City is open Thursday to Sunday.

Originally published as Cairns bagel store Bury Me Standing proves popular with locals