A new bakery has opened in the trendy North Melbourne space that was previously home to barbershop All the Kings Men, and its owners have some impressive experience behind them.

At the helm of Bread Club are friends Tim Beylie and Brice Antier, two French bakers who’ve worked at some of Melbourne’s best bakeries, with Beylie at Woodfrog and Vue de Monde, and Antier at Baker D Chirico.

They know the business and are used to early starts, but told Broadsheet Melbourne that opening their own spot was not without its challenges.

“Probably the first day at Bread Club, I was running on three hours of sleep,” Antier told the publication.

“But everyone was proud and said they loved our products, which had me tearing up.”

Second-generation baker Beylie moved to Australia in 2009 to take on the head baker role at Vue, and also DJs under the fitting name DJ Baguette. Antier learned the art of pastry at home from his other and grandmother before moving to Australia in 2011, where he landed a job at Vue under the mentorship of Beylie. Only open two weeks, Bread Club is already well talked about.

“There are already so many familiar faces, we have such a small-town community vibe here – even though we’re basically in the city,” Beylie said.

On the shelves are white, olive and seeded sourdoughs; baguettes; fruit loaves, sweet pastries including croissants, pain au chocolat, cookies and brownies, plus some more unique options such as the Banana Split – a flaky croissant pastry topped with sliced banana, cream, dark-chocolate shavings and toffee – and the Morning Bun – croissant dough rolled in spiced sugar, filled with vanilla cream and topped with caramelised walnuts. There is also a selection of fruit danishes and doughnuts in a variety of flavours.

Coffee is from Coburg micro-roastery Inglewood Coffee, and the team has exciting plans for Sunday sessions starting in March.

“There are some fun collaborations in the works with food suppliers and friends, [we’re] developing the product range and seeing where it goes,” Beylie said.

“It’s early days, but we will be around for a while.”