Somehow, Danny is both a sourdough superstar and under the radar. He’s trained with and worked for some of the biggest names in the business and a year-and-a-half into his own venture, loaves are flying off the shelves. But, he remains a delightful combination of slightly insular, down to earth and happy to be doing what he loves.

Daniel “Danny” Mikus, the man behind Danny’s Bread, is an artisan bakery specializing in bread, in the riverside, leafy, inner-city suburb of Teneriffe in Brisbane.

On any given day, you can walk into Danny’s Bread: Bread by the river and expect to see a range of crusty sourdough, a rye, a light rye beer bread, wholemeal and multigrain bagels, yeasted rustic baguettes and daily specials throughout the week – such as a spelt bread, wholemeal almond honey loaf and raisin pecan loaf.

Danny likes to use local and Australian ingredients, sourcing flour from Gunnedah and salt from the Murray River Basin. In his light rye beer bread, the beer comes from Green Beacon Beer, just around the corner from Danny’s Bread: Bread by the river.

One of Danny’s signature items is his sourdough, which he made the starter for about six or 12 months before the store opened.

“I knew I needed a starter so I made one the way you make one – a bit of flour and water, and a bit of time. I should probably make up some romantic story…” he laughs.

“The first couple of months are not very exciting. It [the starter] hasn’t developed a lot of character so you keep it going.

“Some people talk about having one for 100 years but it’s hard to judge because there’s so many different methods of making bread as well, but after three or six months it’s pretty stable and has its own character.”

Danny has always loved food. Ask anyone who knows him and they’ll tell you just that. Danny says he’s always been fortunate enough to have been surrounded by good food, and appreciate it as well.

Danny’s was an all-too familiar story of leaving high school, not really knowing what he wanted to do and being expected to go to university. But, luckily for Danny, and all of those who would try his produce along the way, he had an epiphany of sorts and realised he wanted to do bread and pastry.

Once he had a direction, he got in touch with Myriam at Victoire in Sydney, which he knew about through a friend of a friend, and tried his luck at getting a job there.

“I walked in and said I don’t know anything about bread but I’d like to give it a go, and she said when she had a position available she’d give me a call – and she did.”

“I did pastry in the beginning so I started there with Adriana Zumbo who was just finishing up, and then Jessica Pedemont who took over that position.

Danny worked at Victoire for a few years before his passion for bread took hold and made the move to the restaurant scene for a change.

“Pastry for restaurants is quite a different beast – it’s quite nice in a patisserie where you put everything out in the morning and you go back and do your work and orders… doing bits and pieces.

“It was good to have the experience of both. There are some people who really love the service side and really love restaurants.

“For me, I like to concentrate on what I’m doing, get it done and then, I dunno… go home!”

After working in a few restaurants, a bread position came up at Victoire so Danny headed back, taking up pastry as well.

“The times [for bread and pastry] were opposite schedules so after a long time of doing both with my week split down the middle, my sleep patterns weren’t so great, so I went to Iggy’s,” he says.

Danny worked at Iggy’s for four years when they just had the little Belgrave Street store and while he was there, expanding, adding another store on Macpherson Street, in Bronte as well.

“When I first started at Iggy’s I told them it was my plan to kind of do my own thing in the next couple of years, so I had my own sort of schedule in my head,” Danny says.

“They knew for about a year or so before that I was going to leave but no one was exactly sure when.

“It was good not to be under the pressure as it’s not the easiest thing to do. Ordering equipment and stuff took up to six months between talking to people about what would be suitable and placing the order, and then for it to be installed at the other end.”

When starting his own store, Danny’s Bread: Bread by the river had a pretty good idea of what he wanted in mind, sourcing familiar products and equipment as he didn’t want to have a big learning curve on top of all of the other stresses of starting a business.

“All in all there weren’t any big surprises… I was quite involved with the set up of Iggy’s so I became quite familiar with what to expect,” he says.

Danny says he’s happy with how the business is going as it’s growing fairly constantly and he’s happy with the choice to set up shop in Teneriffe as the area is growing with his business.

“Also being new to Brisbane it’s good to come in relatively unknown. There’s no politics and it’s a small network,” he says.

“Not that I’d experienced too much of that back in Sydney, but it’s nice being completely fresh. You can’t step on anybody’s toes because you don’t know anybody.

“Now that I’m a bit freer these days I can go in and check them out, but in the first year… I blinked and it was gone.

“Now I’m getting back to normal. I say that leading into Christmas. Normal is a relative term.”

Danny is keen to work with pastry more in the future and is doing a few bits and pieces to celebrate Christmas such as Christmas cakes, fruit mince tarts and, is looking to do wholesale in the new year.

“We’ve always done some pastry items, so I’d like to continue the range and organically grow that section,” he says.