The newest venture by Pippa and Michael James, Urbanstead, has quietly opened the doors to its retail shop front.

The new bakery has been a labour of love for the former Tivoli Road Bakery owners, and builds on the initiative the duo first launched at the end of 2024.

Urbanstead as a whole aims to both inspire and educate people about the food they consume.

For the past year the initiative has involved small, hands-on classes on sourdough bread and sweet baking, which Michael and Pippa balanced with selling their products at local farmers markets while also getting the shopfront ready for retail.

Located in Abbotsford, Michael said Urbanstead’s bakery arm, which opened in November, has provided a wonderful opportunity for them to connect again with their local community.

“We’ve seen a lot of long-standing customers that we hadn’t seen for ages, and people have been excited to see what we’re doing,” he said.

The Urbanstead range pays homage to Pippa and Michael’s dedication to working with seasonal and locally grown ingredients in their products.

Michael said croissant pastry and flaky whole spelt pastry acted as a canvas for what is around.

“Our bread is sourdough and we use organic grains from Woodstock. The Urban Loaf is our signature loaf and has rye and wholegrain. Our croissant pastry is laminated with Lard Ass butter, which is a local butter factory on the Bellarine Peninsula. We are currently using black garlic butter sheets, which are very tasty,” he said.

As for the location, Michael said they had been looking for a warehouse-type space on the north side of Melbourne for years. As Abbotsford locals themselves, they had been keeping an eye on the space for a while, and jumped at the chance when it became available earlier this year.

“It’s ideal for our business concept for us to do classes, collaborations, and for other people in the industry to use the space to showcase other skills,” he said, adding their friend Jihee Shin was working alongside them, making kimchi that they hoped to sell in the new year.

“We see the Urbanstead retail offering more as bakery-providore, than bakery-café.”