With Flaco, All Are Welcome, Bread Club, Zelda and many others, Melbourne has no shortage of bakeries with outstanding sourdough. But we’ll never complain about having more options. Here are three new spots with exceptional sourdough bagels, loaves, baguettes, croissants and more.

Masses Bagels, Collingwood

Every bagel at Jack Muir-Rigby and Carmen Newton’s Hot-Listed shop Masses Bagels is naturally leavened using a starter. They’re made using a three-day process that involves activating the starter, fermenting the dough overnight, and portioning and shaping the bagels before boiling and baking them.

These wild-fermented bagels are either sold plain, topped with sesame or poppy seeds or in changing flavours including honey wholewheat. You can take them home, but they also come in rip-and-dip packs – with a ramekin of quark flavoured with confit onion and chives – and as open-faced sandwiches. These tartines come topped with whipped cream cheese, olive oil and plum-berry-mint jam; padron pepper butter, horseradish and heirloom tomatoes; and vegan salted cashew cream.

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Bobby’s Bakery, North Melbourne

Sam Iversen has worked at some of the country’s most beloved bakeries including Brickfields and Bourke Street Bakery in Sydney, and Lune, Wild Life Bakery and Antara in Melbourne.

At the end of 2024, he took the money he’d saved to buy a house and instead opened his own bakery in a former mechanic’s garage. At Bobby’s, he keeps things simple. Behind the roller door, you’ll find unfussy, beautifully made baked goods such as sourdough baguettes, rye sourdough loaves, sourdough pizzas and sweets including danishes and triple-choc cookies.

Baker Bleu, Cremorne

Mike and Mia Russell’s two Baker Bleu stores in Caulfield North and Hawksburn have long been go-tos for 48-hour fermented sourdough loaves, baguettes, croissants and cinnamon scrolls. The pair recently opened the biggest Baker Bleu outpost yet, at the 65 Dover commercial development in Cremorne.

Signature breads, pastries and bagels are baked on-site, but here, they’re joined by more substantial options. You’ll find egg salad sandwiches and prosciutto and gruyere on a buttered ficelle. Plus, there are sourdough pizzas including a margherita with walnut pesto and chilli oil; a zucchini pine nut pie with feta and chimichurri; and even a classic Hawaiian.

Additional reporting by Claire Adey, Beatrice Nacor and Lara Torcello.