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Bourke Street Bakery: Taking a bite of the Big App...

Bourke Street Bakery: Taking a bite of the Big Apple

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Bourke Street Bakery shopfront in NYC

Bourke Street Bakery took New York City by storm in 2019 when it opened its first outpost at The James Hotel in NoMad in Manhattan. Fast forward a few years and they now have four stores across the city with a fifth on the way. Baking Business caught up with Bourke Street Bakery co-owner Paul Allam to find out more.

 

For Paul Allam, it was a love of travelling and a desire to relocate his young family to a new country that was partially behind the decision to open a Bourke Street Bakery store in New York City.

As one half of the brains behind the popular Sydney bakery Paul said he and co-founder David McGuinnes had both loved to travel.

“I love NYC. I always have. Both David and I have travelled a lot of our lives. As I started to have kids it became much harder to get that travel fix, so my wife and I decided to look for an opportunity to live in another country,” he said.

The decision was initially between relocating to Tokyo or NYC, but the scales tipped towards the Big Apple because it made more sense both from a business and cultural perspective.

The interior of Bourke Street Bakery

The interior of Bourke Street Bakery

Paul and his family left Sydney in August 2017, settling in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, however it proved much more difficult than expected.

“It was much harder than I thought, and understanding NYC from a food and business perspective,” Paul said.

“We were patient finding a site, which we knew would be an important step for the business. In February 2018 we signed a deal for NoMad and opened on May 4, 2019.

“COVID hit nine months later, which was really tough for NYC, but we never closed and traded throughout [the pandemic] with mostly delivery.”

Stores in Chelsea and Grand Central Terminal, and Jersey City soon followed, with the latest store at Radio City opening its doors in July.

A range from sausage rolls to pies and lamingtons, as well as more traditional items such as croissants and white sourdough can be found on the shelves at each of the stores. However, Paul said the sausage rolls are definitely top of the list when it comes to the distinctly Australian items.

“Pies in the US are generally sweet, so it’s hard to break that cultural barrier,” he said.

“The beef chilli bean sausage roll is very popular. This replaced the classic lamb and harissa sausage roll. Americans don’t love lamb like we do. It’s not something they’ve really grownup on.

“But our bestsellers are similar to the Australian stores – the croissants and white sourdough.”

With a love for the new, Bourke Street Bakery and its products were welcomed, quickly gaining in popularity.

Interestingly, Paul said they never had the alter their recipes to appeal to a different consumer base. Rather they chose to bring in some American classics to sit alongside the quintessential Australian items.

“We brought in pastrami on rye, and a smoked salmon /herbed cream cheese croissant. We also did a maple bacon Danish for while that was popular,” he said.

“We did remove some products. We removed the tart range as these were too small for American tastes. But we didn’t change any recipes. NYC loves the new.”


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