Six new Melbourne bakeries and sandwich shops for summer

Despite our city being graced by kilos upon kilos of bagels, focaccia and sandwiches in the past few years, there's more where that all came from.

Here are six new (or new-ish) places to pick up picnic supplies, plan a low-cost catch-up or cure a hangover with a mighty sanger.

An enormous warehouse space is now home to sibling businesses Bench Coffee Co and Lt. Cardigan. Ardent fans of Lt. Cardigan's shokupan can now enjoy the bakery's Japanese milk bread right where it's made, served toasted with house-made jam. There are a growing number of pastries, too: jalapeno, onion and cheese croissants, jam-filled brioche, black sesame croissants and more, with new items on the way including morning buns.

Lt Cardigan was originally a side project of Satoshi Narusawa, a baker at Loafer Bread who supplied shokupan for katsu sandos at St Dreux, also part of the Bench stable. The loaves he now bakes are designed to be toasted and they're available to take home, too.

Despite its industrial proportions, the 60-seat space (which is also Bench's coffee roastery) has rustic touches, a result of the team doing the fit-out themselves.

Open Tue-Sun 8am-4pm, 38 Breese Street, Brunswick, benchcoffee.co

Lockdown project Back Alley Bakes has scaled up, going from sourdough loaves baked in the Preston home of couple Alana Trevisan and Gabriel Alonso to a large Coburg warehouse with a shopfront.

The upgrade means Back Alley can now do viennoiserie and other products. It's a big change from "two or three people crammed together like penguins in a single-car garage," says Alonso, a former chef.

Behind the pink roller door, the expanded team makes morning buns filled with passionfruit creme patissiere, sausage rolls using croissant dough ("croissausos") and sourdough English muffins in three flavours. Slow-ferment breads made with Burrum Biodynamic flour are used for sandwiches including pastrami and emmental; chicken salad; and kasundi-roasted cauliflower. Coffee is by Axil Coffee Roasters.

Open Wed-Fri 6.30am-2.30pm, Sat 8am-3pm, 10 Leslie Avenue, Coburg North, backalleybakes.com.au

A block from busy Hoddle Street is a petite piece of Paris from a young baker who trained in the French capital. JC Patisserie and Boulangerie features wrought-iron details, marble surfaces and a crystal chandelier under which Jonathan Camilleri labours over seven-layer opera cake, croissants shaped in rectangles for an extra flaky texture (pictured, right), and gateau Saint-Honore, a favourite in Paris that Camilleri struggled to find at Melbourne bakeries.

He took over the two-car garage in 2021 and spent 19 months converting it into a working bakery. A custom coffee blend from Criteria Coffee has been made to pair with New York-style cheesecakes, madeleines and more.

Open Tue-Fri 8am-2pm, Sat-Sun 9am-2pm, 17 Henry Street, Abbotsford, jcpatisserieboulangerie.com

Sandwiches – fresh, toasted or hot – are pretty much the extent of the menu at Shooter McGavin's, a new spot close to Carlton Gardens that's geared to takeaway. Chicken salad ciabatta is spruced up with chicken skin while a fish butty is stuffed with chips. But even heftier is the hot honey chicken, fried until crisp and laid into a Southern-style biscuit.

Salads make occasional appearances, and there are pancakes in the morning or brioche scrolls for an afternoon sugar hit. Along with coffee from Inglewood, find thickshakes or house-made iced teas, which come topped with foam in flavours such as peach and pineapple, strawberry and lemon, or coconut and lime. Owner Paul Butera previously ran Oscar Cooper cafe in Prahran.

Open Mon-Fri 7am-3pm, Sat 8am-3pm, 117 Grattan Street, Carlton, shootermcgavins.com.au

Hector's Deli has opened a third shop, switching out the look of former Fitzroy tenant Smith & Deli for a minimal and brightly lit sandwich bar with a few stools for dining in. Hector's favourites, including the chicken schnitzel and rare roast beef, are along for the ride.

Open daily 7am-3pm, 111 Moor Street, Fitzroy, hectorsdeli.com.au

Bagels are the vehicle of choice for pastrami, sopressa and more at Dan's Deli which has expanded to Carlton after first opening in Toorak in 2021. Subs with rippling cross-sections of meat, salad and cheese come with names such as The Big Bang, while fresh juices in combos such as celery, spinach, apple and orange are there for a jolt of health.

Open Tue-Sun 7am-3.30pm, 210 Queensberry Street, Carlton, no website