‘Plan a visit, it’s amazing!’ Why you should join the queue at this bakery in the ’burbs

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Fitzroy? Forget it. Collingwood? Over. Bayswater? Happening. Bays-where? Hint: it’s far from the bay and I didn’t see any water. What I did notice were two thriving businesses in an industrial precinct, queues out the door and the wafting aroma of buttery patisserie.

I lined up. I scanned the menu of filled bagels and toasties. I looked at the cabinet, feeling my pulse quicken. What an array: croissants, plain and flavoured, many types of bread, tarts and biscuits and the prettiest egg salad sandwich you ever will see.

Drom is busy, beautiful and bountiful. Wrapping behind the laden counter are the kitchens, buzzing with bakers, every process on show.

It’s a takeaway operation but there is a windowsill out the front with cushions, so I took my haul there.

The triple cheese toastie is an oozy, pungent mess of mozzarella, cheddar and taleggio amped up with gochujang butter and green tomato chutney. It’s the culinary equivalent of standing by the speakers at a rock concert: enveloping, enthralling, all-encompassing.

Sausage rolls say a lot about a bakery. The Drom puff pastry-encased sausy is filled with peppery pork mince, touched with fennel and laced with cheese that melds everything into lusciousness. It’s served with sweet-tart currant-spiked chutney.

Drom’s croissant dough is made over three days of rolling, folding and resting: the resulting plain croissant is light and flaky with perfect internal whorling and well-developed flavour.

Creativity is a driving force here, so the classic is just a starting point. People go mad for croissants in half-moon and crescent shapes with lavish fillings such as salted caramel and berry jam. (If you want these signature treats, come early or order ahead via the website.)

I was just as enamoured of savoury spins such as the spanakopita croissant cube and a Vegemite toast slab made with croissant offcuts and a cheese drizzle.

Drom is the baby sister to The Hatter and The Hare, the 160-seat cafe next door. Hatter launched in 2016 off the back of a catering enterprise that supplied hotels. The people behind it (Vinnie and Mary Kodladi, her brother George Dardamanis, his partner Coners Buada, plus Coners’ sister Becki Buada) enjoyed wholesale but craved customer interaction. Their cafe solved that problem.

Tip: If you want the signature crescents and half-moons, come early or order ahead via the website

It’s hugely ambitious, with menus and themed decor that change every three months (think Dining in Wonderland, Paris in Love or the current Hollywood theme). A specialist pastry workshop crafts elaborate and exquisite gateaux that are as good as any in Melbourne.

Drom sprang from Hatter’s lockdown when they started baking sourdough to sell alongside meal packs. It went off, the family cogitated a new bakery business and Drom, opened in March 2023, is the happy result.

They’re both exciting businesses, bringing buzz, pride, imagination and mad skills to the outer eastern suburbs. Plan a visit, it’s amazing!