Event: Rustica Sourdough Bakery reopening

Location: 402 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Phone: 03 9417 7775
Link: http://www.rusticasourdough.com.au/
Cuisine: Bakery, Breakfast/Brunch, Coffee

Rustica Sourdough Café was opened last year by master baker, Brenton Lang (formerly of Phillippas Bread). A successful venture, today, Rustica supplies some of Melbourne's best cafes with delicious wild yeast fermented sourdough.

While this degree of success would leave most content, after 16 months of focusing on his breads and baking, Brenton closed the doors to customers for a gastronomic intermission whilst he worked to refresh and reinvent Rustica to be the café he envisioned. 

Gastrology bloggers were delighted to attend the grand re-opening of Rustica to see the new place and celebrate the start of a new era for the café with a tasting of Brenton's most popular sourdough breads and baked goods. 

Everything served is made onsite in the back bakery from cake to cronut to almond croissants to fig ficelle to chili jam. The beautiful range of artisan breads are exceptional, a credit to Brenton’s use of time-honoured techniques of crafting bread. The café cultivates wild yeasts and nurture cultures that become the flavour base from which a selection of classic and contemporary breads are crafted. 

The sourdough breads at Rustica are of particular note. Practising the art of authentic and traditional sourdough means the flavour and texture of each loaf is enhanced. 

The tastings ended on a sweet note with an array of decadent offerings ranging from popcorn macarons to lemon curd filled cronuts. 

We particularly enjoyed Rustica’s award-winning passionfruit tart. The pastry was desirably short, light and crisp and the passionfruit curd was delectable and struck the right balance between sweet and sour. 

On top of being an excellent bakery, the Rustica Sourdough café serves a complete breakfast and lunch menu which features a wide range of fresh sandwiches, freshly baked pies, stone-baked pizzas and delicious treats. We sampled a couple of their baked pies which were absolutely moreish. 

In the next few weeks, Rustica will be extending their evening hours during Fri/Sat nights to encourage dinner diners in the area to have a delicious, dessert experience along with Roastcraft coffee or a glass of wine from their new wine list featuring wild yeast fermented wines. We look forward to returning to Rustica to sample their new dinner menu.