Flaky croissants and cardamom buns steal the show at new Albion bakery Time & Temp
A brand-new boutique bakery that’s built by hand and backed by heart is causing a stir on Sandgate Road. Time & Temp is finding a fanbase fast thanks to its small but stellar range of baked goods, from primo pain au chocolat to wedges of maple pecan pie. Come and meet the couple behind Brisbane’s buzziest new bakery …
When Palita Cai and Manning Young officially opened their artisanal bakery Time & Temp a fortnight ago, they weren’t sure what to expect. They estimated it would be a quiet first day, with perhaps a few curious locals popping their heads in when the roller door opened at 7:00 am.
They ended up selling out of everything by 8:30 am.
“We doubled [our output] on the second day and we still sold out,” says Manning.
While a debut like this is enough to help alleviate the uncertainty and anxieties associated with opening a small business, for Palita and Manning, the warm reception still came as a genuine surprise.
“People knew that we were open on day one … I can’t understand that – it was so cool to see people show up,” says Manning. “Locals have been watching the roller door that’s been half open for so long.”
For Palita (who made her bones baking at Melbourne institutions Falco Bakery and Loafer Bread) and Manning (formerly part of the team at esteemed coffee roaster Proud Mary), Time & Temp is the actualisation of the duo’s resolute and long-held ambition to run a business on their own terms.
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The bakery might be small in scale, but it’s big on character. The cosy tenancy has been designed and equipped to cover all of the key bases. Most of the internal space is dedicated to baking equipment and prep space, while a counter positioned at the entry doubles as the pastry display and service area. A number of milk-crate stools and low tables are scattered along the side of the building or, in case of rain, just in front of the entrance.
Aside from the essential trades needed to bring the site up to code, Manning and Palita oversaw most of Time & Temp’s fit-out.
“I would say it’s neat but cosy,” says Manning. “It feels homemade but detail-oriented, because that’s how I was about everything in this place.
“The personality definitely feels like us – I didn’t know if we could achieve that without having a design consultant or even a brand consultant. But it just came together because we were here every day. I’m proud of what we did with a very small budget.”
“I like the fact that every time we look at something [in the space], we remember what was going on when we were making it,” adds Palita.
Though Palita and Manning’s vision is humble, Time & Temp is propelled by an ethos that favours quality above everything. That is most apparent with the bakery’s range of top-notch pastries – a tight selection that sits around eight options that will constantly rotate to reflect the seasons.
“I just take what I’ve learned through my career or the people I work with and then mix it with what I like to eat,” says Palita of her approach to baking. “I think the pastry that I make, they have familiar flavours that people have heard of and they know what they are, but they’re more fun.”
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Of Time & Temp’s range, three items will always be available – a plain croissant, pain au chocolat and a cardamom bun. Baked-goods connoisseurs are urged to start with the classic croissant, which Palita makes using a hint of rye flour for flavour. These delicate wonders set a high benchmark for the rest of the selection to follow, with a shatteringly flaky crust encasing layers of buttery goodness inside.
Pop into Time & Temp this weekend and you’ll also be able to try sweetcorn danishes, rhubarb crumble danishes, cinnamon walnut scrolls and maple pecan pie (another must-try item). Soon, Palita will start experimenting with some new additions, with an eye towards bolstering the range with more vegan options, tarts and cakes.
Underlining Palita and Manning’s commitment to quality, the couple is sourcing top-tier ingredients from a range of reputable suppliers, including cultured butter from Pepe Saya, sustainable flour from Wholegrain Milling Co. and organic single-origin chocolate from Hunted+Gathered.
“There are plenty of ingredients that we have right now that have cheaper alternatives,” says Manning. “We might be stupid for spending all this money on ingredients, but for now it feels good to us. The pecan pie wouldn’t be on the menu if we cared about that stuff.”
Manning will be overseeing Time & Temp’s coffee offering, which will be exclusively dedicated to quickly dispensed batch-brew pours. That means no flat whites. Sorry, milk fans.
Expect coffee from a rotating cast of roasters – including some exceptional Brisbane-based brands (right now, Passport Specialty Coffee is on deck). Manning will eventually run two batch coffees, with one being a more complex premium option. The caffeine is envisioned as a supplementary aspect of Time & Temp’s offering, with Manning preferring to keep prices low enough to cover costs and encourage customers to opt for something outside of their comfort zone.
When asked about the methodology behind his coffee curation, Manning reveals there are a few factors at play.
“First and foremost is taste,” says Manning. “A lot of our coffees are ones that I have tasted before. The ones that were good and stuck in my mind.
“But I think quality usually goes hand in hand with that – good practices, sourcing, sustainability, pricing, transparency and all of those things. If the roaster isn’t talking about that stuff, they’re an automatic no for me.”
Right now, Brisbane’s croissant scene is as competitive as it has ever been and carb connoisseurs have high standards. If early word-of-mouth praise is anything to go by, it sounds like Palita and Manning are onto something good with Time & Temp. And while the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, right now the couple are reveling in the ability to deliver something that is a true reflection of their tastes. The fact that locals are picking up what they are putting down is icing on the proverbial cake.
“I think I’m just most proud of actually doing what I want to do,” says Palita. “People go out of their way to send us messages saying ‘Thank you for doing this’ and ‘Your pastries are really good’ – when that happens, it just confirms that what I like, people like too.”
Time & Temp is now open to the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Operating hours and other details can be found in The Directory.