A BAKERY open from  3.30pm – 8.30pm?

The Chook hasn’t just eaten a marijuana and poppy seed loaf, these are the actual trading hours of Everyday Bread in Willagee.

Situated in the site of an old 24-hour lunch bar on the unassuming corner of Stock Road and Leach Highway (the one where the grubby TAB used to be) the small bakery has become a cult favourite with locals queuing up to get their fix of delicious fresh breads including sourdough loaves, baguettes and fougasse.   

Co-founders Zachary Flemming, a baker for 15 years, and Thomas Radford decided on the opening hours for two reasons – they wanted people to enjoy fresh bread with their evening meal like they do in Europe and bakers to work more sociable hours and have a life (they often start work anytime from 1am onwards).

People who don’t have time to pick up a loaf first thing in the morning can now buy fresh bread in the afternoon or on the way home from work at Everyday Bread (a lot of bakeries shut at 2pm).

This has opened up the shop to a diverse range of customers who work all kinds of shifts. 

The owners did a lot of renovations to the tatty old lunch bar, creating a functional modern bakery, but it’s not flash and all the love, care and money goes into the bread – they use stone-ground, wholegrain flour from Wholegrain Milling in New South Wales, ensuring maximum flavour and nutrition.

Since opening they’ve sold a wide variety of loaves including porridge, walnut and hot honey sourdough, onion rye, sour cherry and rosemary sourdough, and delicious baguettes. 

At the weekend the shop does some speciality and premium breads like fougasse with roast sesame and spring onion.

My family enjoyed a lovely pumpkin bloomer ($7.50) with our dinner.

It had loads of pumpkin seeds on the crust ensuring a nutty flavour with super light, yellow-tinged bread in the middle.

It was a very filling creation so bear that in mind when pairing it with a meal.

My favourite was the sour cherry and rosemary loaf ($9).

As I sliced it open, I enjoyed the delicious aroma of cherries and a subtle hint of rosemary.

The taste was just as good – a moist bread with cherries, sultanas and raisins that seemed to span the chasm between dessert and sandwich.

I enjoyed several slices of this delicious bread on its own for my lunch with a little butter on top.

There was an abundance of cherries in there and it had clearly been made with care and not by some utilitarian worker who mechanically dropped the allotted 10 cherries into a pre-made dough mix.

Rounding things off was the everyday sourdough ($8.50) the perfect rustic accompaniment to your bowl of hearty pasta and red wine, or as the tasty base for your summer sandwiches.

Everyday Bread follows in the wake of JM Burger opening a few doors doors (“Yummy Yankee”, Herald, September 24, 2022), and is part of a mini-renaissance of the little group of shops at the corner of Stock Road and Leach Highway.

So next time you drive by and see a queue forming there at 3.20pm, you’ll know it’s not to place a bet on the 3.30 at Flemington but to buy some quality everyday bread.

Everyday Bread
73 Leach Highway, Willagee
facebook.com/everydaybreadbakery

by STEPHEN POLLOCK