Melbourne croissanterie Lune announces new Armadale store as Sydney plans revealed

Melbourne aerodynamicist and patissiere Kate Reid is taking her celebrated croissanterie Lune to Armadale in Victoria, 10 years after signing the lease to Lune's first location.

"Ten years ago … I commenced the lease on a tiny shop in Elwood, destined to be the home for a crazy little croissant business I'd dreamt up," Reid wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday.

"I'd called it Lune. Ten years goes by in a heartbeat."

Reid had introduced Melbourne to her uniquely buttery, flaky, shiny croissants, and they were hooked. Fans queued around the block, Reid fielded daily requests from wholesalers, and in 2016, The New York Times questioned whether Reid had created "the world's best croissant".

This year, Lune is poised for national expansion. The croissanterie opened its first interstate store in South Brisbane in August, with plans for a second Brisbane store on Burnett Lane in the CBD next month.

In Melbourne, the existing Fitzroy and CBD stores have been so overwhelmed with orders that they're regularly selling out early, forcing the team to temporarily reduce their specials menu in order to ensure they can bake sufficient quantities of their classic range.

On Friday, Reid announced that load would be lifted with further expansion south of the river, due to open mid to late July.

"Friends south of the river, we know you've been dark on us ever since we packed up shop, crossed the Yarra and moved to Fitzroy," she wrote on Instagram.

"How about if we told you we were coming back? VERY SOON.⁠ Before the winter is out, the leafy streets of Armadale will have a buttery breeze care of Lune!!"

A recent recruitment drive is set to alleviate the pressure on the Fitzroy location, which remains responsible for the production of Victoria's raw pastries. Even with the added workload, Reid expects to see up to three monthly specials return by the end of winter.

Reid says it was clear from the first inspection that the Armadale site was destined to become a Lune.

"It was an absolutely amazing prospect. Not only the location, but particularly the development. It was incredibly high quality, and it already had finishes planned in the Lune look and feel," she says.

"It made total sense that a Lune should belong there."

The patissiere felt it was particularly important to expand into a new neighbourhood after the extended period of lockdown "changed the way people engage with their local community".

"Prior to the pandemic people would have regularly and willingly travelled across town to a destination, whether that be a cafe, bakery or eatery," she says.

"Now, they're more loyal to their local neighbourhood given they've lived and worked within that five-kilometre radius for so long.

"I think I was trying to anticipate the slightly changing landscape of hospitality moving forward."

But Reid isn't stopping there. Sydneysiders are set to score their own Lune in about 12 months' time, when Reid opens a store in Darlinghurst. The tip-off comes from a job posting for front-of-house staff, which noted the incoming staff would be trained in one of Lune's Victoria or Queensland locations before the grand opening.

It's been a long time coming. The famous croissanterie first announced plans to open a Sydney store in early 2020.

"Everyone in Sydney was so dark that Brisbane got it first, but it wasn't intentional, it was just how the cookie crumbled throughout the pandemic," Reid says.

"Even though our plans in Sydney were disrupted, we actually ended up landing on our feet. We found an even better site and we're working with the architect to finalise the designs now."

Reid hints at a "uniquely Sydney" experience, with "more, different types of opportunities for dining in".

"The Sydney store is going to be something very, very special and well worth waiting for. The designs are mind-blowing."