On the day that Bourke Street Bakery opened in New York’s NoMad in early May, the line to get in extended all the way down the block. Inside, it was standing room only and Australian accents filled the air as they examined the cases of sausage rolls, pastries, sandwiches and breads. They knew the quality of the products that fill those cases from the 15 year old iconic bakery with outlets throughout Sydney. And the same quality is guaranteed because the co-owner and baker Paul Allam, his wife Jessica Grynberg, who manages the front of house, moved to New York with their three children to open the first international branch. It wasn’t a calculated business move. “We just love New York,” Allam explains. “We traveled a lot. We first came to New York on holiday in 2007 and just fell in love with it.”
In most regards, the offerings in the new bakery/cafe are similar to the ones revered by regulars back home—artisan breads produced with superlative ingredients such as organic miche sourdough and everything ficelle (think everything bagel for ingredient toppings), lamb& harissa sausage rolls and pastries such as pear Danish, pain au raisin and the ginger crème brulee tart that is apparently a favorite of star London chef Yotam Ottolenghi. Some alterations have taken place for the American debut, however: the fig and cranberry sourdough isn’t on the New York menu because Americans apparently don’t want figs in their bread and the prune sourdough is renamed dried plum (prune is apparently an unpopular name.) And some items have been added to appeal to Americans such as cinnamon buns and PB&J bunny rolls.
Allam is using ingredients mostly from the Northeast (the exception is lamb flown in from Australia for the sausage rolls because he couldn’t find a texture that worked from the U.S.), milling grains from Maine on site and starting to bake at 4 AM. The times that the bread will be ready are posted so customers can get them hot from the oven–from white sourdough available when they open at 7 AM every day and everything ficelle every day at 11 to specialty breads such as pain d’epices on sale on Mondays at 9 AM. There are also really delicious sandwiches and salads such as Wilbur’s sandwich (slow roasted fennel infused pork shoulder and broccoli with cheddar and dijonnaise on white sourdough) and smoked trout salad with Brussels sprouts, pickled cabbage, fennel, freekeh (a high fiber whole grain), arugula and lemon. There’s also a late afternoon/early evening menu including gnocchi and charcuterie. And if there is any bread left from the day’s baking, it’s a good idea to take a loaf home.
