Sydney’s been pretty adept at stealing our fab city’s best eat and drink experiences. They’ve absconded with our coffee culture, mimicked our laneways and stylish casino and lured some of our top dining talent. But what do you expect from a city created by convicts?

But as they say: don’t get mad; get even. And, really, we’re only beginning to settle the score. We’ve already lured Rockpool, Guillaume and Longrain here, and now Melbourne is about to appropriate Sydney’s masters of artisan loaves, Brasserie Bread. In fact, they fire up their ovens in South Melbourne tomorrow.

Brasserie co-founded Tony Papas (of Bayswater Brasserie and Allpress coffee fame) once worked with iconic US chef Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, a time during which he discovered San Francisco’s mind-blowing sourdough bread. He went on to investigate other leading loaf makers in the bay area, including La Brea and the Acme, as he set out to recreate the complex and crusty risings back in Australia. In 1999, Brasserie Bread was born.

Visitors to the Melbourne branch, which reportedly took $1.8 million to finance, can seek out the excellent organic sourdough, but there’s plenty of additional company: olive & rosemary bread, NY rye, French mountain bread, sour cherry loaves, croissants, tarts and more. There’s also a hands-on baking school, including artisan breadmaking and what we expect to be extremely popular kid’s classes.

Wholesale operations kick off first, so unless you’re packing sandwiches for the entire footy team, you’ll have to wait until early November for the bakery café. Expect a space that’s all timbre floors, earth tones, glass and stone, a menu spanning baguettes with duck rillettes to croque monsieurs, and Allpress coffee to go with your sourdough pancakes.

So along with Dench, Babka and Baker D. Chirico, we’ve got another stellar breadmaker to add to our books. Now it’s onto the next must-haves on our Sydney shopping list: inner-city surf beaches, reliable weather and the return of the South Melbourne Swans.

Where: 150 Thistlethwaite St, South Melbourne
Phone: 1300 966 845
Details: brasseriebread.com.au/melbourne