What first started as a lockdown side-hustle for Sunda-trained chef Lindsay Oates has developed into a much-anticipated bricks-and-mortar bakery.

Akimbo, located in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, opened its doors in late 2023 to great excitement with Lindsay at the helm alongside his business partner and friend, Louis McCoy.

Lindsay said opening a physical store had been on their plans for a while.

“It started as a micro-bakery. It was a side project I was doing from home during COVID and it just took off,” Lindsay said.

“I started doing it full time after getting some experience from other bakeries. I was wholesaling to restaurants, because I used to be a chef, and then a friend of mine approached me and said, ‘you know, this has the potential to be something bigger’.”

Lindsay first broadened his retail to include farmers’ market – all the while still producing the bread from his home kitchen.

He said it was only possible because he had a good set up that enabled him to produce about 20 loaves an hour.

“But still, after a year or two doing it like that I was pretty frustrated with that kind of capacity,” he said.

“I’d had a really good response doing the farmers’ markets at Carlton and Coburg, and that was like a test drive for the shop.

“We just thought we’d go for it, find a bricks-and-mortar and throw some money at it.”

Lindsay said he and Louis took the same formula they used for the markets into the shop – namely a pared down but excellent offering and a firm focus bread.

Thanks to Lindsay’s background as a chef, the range is regularly re-examined and kept seasonal.

“We want to keep the range concise and consistent, seasonal and exciting for people,” Lindsay said.

“There are a few things we’re nailing that are going gangbusters. The breads – the standard loaves – always sell really well. But then there are things that people may not have tried like fougasse.”

Every week a different fougasse is made, and ranges from traditional confit garlic and rosemary to seaweed and sesame glazed with honey, or spring onion and nigella seed.

Lindsay said he sits down at the end of each week and writes a menu for the following week.

“But then we just roll with it,” he said.

“We can’t really do enough at the moment.”