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Just Open: Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Artisan Bakery pop-up, Southbank

Annabel Smith
Annabel Smith

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Artisan Bakery and Bar is open all-day.
The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Artisan Bakery and Bar is open all-day.Daniel Mahon

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival kicked off on Friday, and this year's hub has your pre-work breakfast dash sorted.

The 17-day pop-up Artisan Bakery features a rotating cast of guest bakers and local coffee roasters. Swing by for a coffee and pastry, or grab a loaf of bread to takeaway. The day's baked goods are available until sold out, so get in early.

Salted caramel and vanilla doughnuts from guest baker Justin Gellatly.
Salted caramel and vanilla doughnuts from guest baker Justin Gellatly.Annabel Smith
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First up is Justin Gellatly, of London's Bread Ahead. Gellatly's pillowy custard-filled doughnuts ($5.50) have a cult following at London's Borough Market. The salted caramel custard version, crowned with a chunk of honeycomb, is our pick. Gellatly is also selling mini filled savoury buns ($5.50), seeded fennel loaves ($7) and his signature two-metre long cathedral loaf, a hefty bread that weighs in at seven kilograms and is cut into more manageable portions ($7).

Fresh from London, Gellatly and his wife Louise were baking from midnight on Thursday. The bakery is set up so you can watch the bakers at work through a perspex window, including baker-in-residence Tim Beylie of St Kilda's Woodfrog Bakery. Other visiting bakers include Eric Kayser of Maison Kayser in Paris, Mike McEnearney of Sydney's Kitchen By Mike, and Michael James of Tivoli Road Bakery, Melbourne.

The open-air riverside bakery and bar is located at the Southbank side of Queensbridge pedestrian bridge, and features a shed-like covering and three separate shipping container-sized areas – a bar for ordering drinks and coffee, the bakery, and an open rusty container for sold-out baking workshops. Tall timber tables are topped with herb planters, mint green seating adds to the fresh look and market umbrellas and potted apple and olive trees dot the space.

Guest baker Justin Gellatly.
Guest baker Justin Gellatly.Supplied

The guest coffee roaster's shift ends at midday, when Peter Rowland Catering takes over the coffee machine. The all-day bakery and cafe is licensed, with a short edit of beer, wine, cider and softies. A brief breakfast menu (served til noon), snacky "bread board" share plates ($20), salads and savoury tarts are available, plus a couple of barbecue sandwiches from 6pm. Hit up the baby blue old-fashioned gelati cart for dessert.

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The pop-up is open from 7.30am-late, for the duration of the festival, from Friday, February 27 until Sunday, March 15.

Artisan Bakery and Bar, Queensbridge Square, Southbank. The guest baker and coffee roaster roster is available at melbournefoodandwine.com.au

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Annabel SmithAnnabel Smith is deputy digital editor for Good Food.

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