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It has been one year since Self Raised Bread Shoppe opened in Carlton, but the queues for their house-baked focaccia, strawberry sheet cakes and hoagie sandwiches remain as long as ever.

The demand for nostalgic cafe-bakery hybrids has taken over Sydney, but it is especially strong in the south, where such venues are harder to find. Enter Self Raised Snack Shoppe in Bexley North: the second bakery offering from local hospitality young guns Sal Senan, Amani Rachid and Huss Rachid.

Snack Shoppe opened on Saturday, February 24, just around the corner from the team’s popular pizza parlour, My Mother’s Cousin. It’s a walk-up window serving an exclusive range of new pastries and sandwiches, made fresh in the Carlton kitchen and brought over each morning.

The new location will pay a similar homage to the charm of the suburban Aussie milk bar the group grew up with, featuring reeded glass windows, grainy grid-tile walls and outdoor seating under amber-coloured striped umbrellas.

Senan says they decided to open a second, smaller bakery outlet after the long wait for Bread Shoppe (sometimes upwards of half an hour) started deterring customers.

“The next logical step was to give people somewhere else to go. We wanted to make it more accessible,” he says.

They also wanted to try something new with their menu. At Self Raised Snack Shoppe, there are savoury scrolls with halloumi, zaatar, oregano and honey; Roman-style pizza by the slice with toppings like artichoke and mortadella; and a new “elevated” sandwich menu.

This includes offerings like the schnitzel (300g crumbed chicken breast with lettuce, mayo and American cheese on white bread); fish fillet (sustainable panko-crumbed hake fillet with pickles, American cheese and house tartar sauce on a milk bun); and prawn roll (prawns, sweet chilli mayo, chives, fried shallots and iceberg lettuce on a milk bun).

In the glass display, there’ll be sweet treats like pistachio and raspberry doughnuts and double baked hazelnut praline croissants, on top of Self Raised staples like the Boston cream doughnut.

Coffee is sourced from The Reformatory Lab and drink dispensers are pouring iced Milos, iced teas and house-made lemonade to beat the humidity.

“We’re excited to share what we’ve been working on and give people that variety,” Senan says.

“Especially in the suburbs, it’s nice to have an elevated offering. Generally, you’d have to travel to the city or Newtown to find somewhere like this, and it excites us that we can give people in the suburbs that same quality.”

Open Tue-Sat 7am-3pm, Sun 8am-2pm

Shop 4 8/20 Sarsfield Circuit, Bexley North, instagram.com/selfraisedbread