Ben Williamson never expected to get sentimental over Agnes Bakery’s closure, but even the acclaimed chef – and culinary director of Brisbane-born hospitality powerhouse Anyday – found himself getting caught up in the frenzy of the lauded woodfired bakery’s final days.

“I don’t think I really had any of that nostalgic bone until the final week,” reveals Ben. “I brought my family and dogs down, we got some coffees and pastries and sat opposite on the other side of the road – across from that beautiful house – just looking at it. And that was the moment it kind of hit.”

Agnes Bakery’s closure bookended an important period in the Anyday story – a chapter that began back in the dark days of March 2020, the onset of COVID-19. Evolving from savvy pandemic pivot to blockbuster James Street staple, Agnes Bakery proved to be a sleeper hit for the hospitality group, flourishing into widely adored weekly go-to for many.

But even at its peak, Ben and the rest of the Anyday brains trust – Tyron Simon, Bianca Marchi and Frank Li – knew that it had the potential to offer more, to be more.

“The biggest challenge with that [James Street] site was that it was never quite big enough to do exactly what we needed,” says Ben. “We made do with what we could in there but eventually it just outgrew its roots. We knew we needed to find a site to let it become what it was intended to be and to grow more into its own identity.”

When the construction of FORME’s James Place development forced the Anyday team to make the tough call to close Agnes Bakery and incorporate it into something new, the next step was to come to an agreement on what it would look like and, perhaps more importantly, what it would be called.

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“Naming kids is really easy, but naming restaurants is extremely difficult – it’s such a challenge,” jokes Ben. “When we named Anyday, there were a lot of ideas going around. One of them was Idle Hands, as in that old adage of ‘idle hands are the devil’s playthings’ – it means we’ve got to keep evolving and keep doing things.

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“We had many, many conversations about keeping the brand and maintaining it as Agnes. But being something that was born from COVID, it was a pivot. It wasn’t something that was intentional – it was something that we had to go into. I genuinely loved it and it was such a great experience, but I thought we should finally get it away from Agnes and let it become its own thing.”

Idle, which officially opened in New Farm on Saturday June 21, is the embodiment of that evolutionary process. Less a direct successor and more of an expansion of scope, Idle takes the foundations laid by Agnes Bakery and builds upon them, creating an entirely new venue that Ben describes as a crossover, of sorts – a delicatessen meets a bakery meets a cafe.

Nestled on the Merthyr Road side of a brand-new Twohill & James-designed corner development, Idle cuts a chic figure. Bianca Marchi, Anyday’s head of brand, and celebrated interior designer Tamsin Johnson have spearheaded the venue’s aesthetic direction, applying a 1980s Italian futurist scheme complete with glass, concrete and stainless steel. These industrial elements are softened by custom terrazzo tiles and the earthy brick of the building’s facade.

Most of the interior is given over to Idle’s coffee counter and pastry display, which is where long-time fans of Agnes Bakery will feel most at home. Head baker Mitch Suchowacki is expanding upon Agnes’ range of sweet and savoury treats, moving away from a dependence on woodfired baking and using a new purpose-built underground production facility (equipped with a custom temperature-controlled lamination room) to update and refine the offering.

In addition to classic croissants, you’ll spy the likes of rhubarb brown-butter danishes, icing-covered cinnamon rolls, macadamia miso and choc wattleseed cookies, cinnamon sourdough doughnuts, tonka bean kouign-amann, garlic and chive twists, and hot dog croissants. The range includes more hot savoury items than before, such as flaky beef and mushroom pies, and harissa-laced lamb sausage rolls.

A range of breads are displayed behind the coffee machine, with loaves of country sourdough on offer alongside bagels, baguettes, fruit loaf and gluten-free pumpkin sourdough. Idle’s bread is also used across a selection of sandwiches and rolls. In the afternoon, half of the counter is given over to charcoal-roasted chicken and a range of salads – prime fare to take away and enjoy in New Farm park.

In addition to a suite of new baked goods, Idle breaks away from Agnes Bakery with its dine-in offering, which sees Ben tackling brunch for the first time in a long time – delivering a Euro-inspired menu that features a few callbacks to his heralded stint at the helm of Gerard’s on James Street.

“We’re really inspired by some of the great breakfast places in Australia – PIÑA By Room Ten in Sydney and Florian in Melbourne are two that come to mind straight away,” says Ben. “There’s a lightness and a holistic element to some of it, but also then a few callbacks to my past, like with the Baghdad eggs.”

The menu starts light, with white-miso porridge with cinnamon-poached quince and sourdough crumpets topped with creme fraiche and berry compote. From there, guests can enjoy ox heart tomato toast with green-olive salsa, Euro plates (boasting a combo of rye sourdough, blackberry jam, Cabot cheddar and a soft-boiled egg), continental breakfast plates, bacon-and-egg rolls with waffle fries, steamed spanner crab omelette with chilli, choron and salmon roe, and Ben’s famous Baghdad eggs, served with labne, cumin burnt butter, smoked almond and flaky flatbread made from croissant offcuts. All of this is available alongside specialty coffee from Single O.

Idle’s final component is its deli offering – a selection of imported and house-made goods (curated by Tyron) designed to elevate any household pantry. Once Idle’s liquor licence is approved, booze will be available for in-house consumption and takeaway.

“The driving force for Ty was just to source products that are difficult to find within Brisbane and Australia – just great producers with incredible products,” says Ben. “We have some of our own Idle-branded stuff in here, including a toum that we make, labneh, we’ve got barbecue sauce, gentleman’s relish and ketchup.”

With Idle the first of a number of Anyday venues set to open in the next 12 months, the group is entering an exciting new era. While the book has closed on Agnes Bakery, Ben believes that its spirit lives on in Idle, with the team now enjoying the freedom to experiment and create to a degree that was unattainable in the bakery’s previous guise.

“I remember Ty and I having a conversation, just reminiscing on where it came from,” recalls Ben, thinking back once more to Agnes Bakery’s final day. “It was really a bittersweet thing, but it always needed to evolve, I think, and I’m really happy for this evolution.”

Idle is now open to the public. Head to The Directory for operating hours and other important details.