On a roll: Jane Scrolls in Coorparoo is drawing crowds with its cinnamon-laced creations
For the Jane Scrolls team, the recipe for success has always called for a little elbow grease, a lot of late nights and plenty of cinnamon. Now, as the pillow-soft scroll specialist makes the leap from market favourite to Coorparoo bakery, the hard work is only just beginning. Queues are forming and scrolls are disappearing by the tray – here’s why Jane Scrolls is turning into one of the biggest openings of the year …
Hamish Pearce is used to late nights and minimal sleep.
When his viral cinnamon scroll vendor, Jane Scrolls, was in its early days (around August last year), he was pulling long hours to cater to customer demand, often only sleeping between 4:00 pm and 11:00 pm before getting up to bake throughout the night and ahead of a full day at the markets.
More than a year on, sleep is still hard to come by for Hamish – especially since he and his partner Rebecca Ferguson made the decision to convert a former butcher on Old Cleveland Road in Coorparoo into a bricks-and-mortar shop and production kitchen. Naturally, Hamish oversaw the build himself.
“[When we were fitting out the space] I had a little inflatable bed in the storeroom,” Hamish said, with a chuckle. “My house is maybe a 15-minute drive from here, so my brain goes, that’s 30 minutes of extra sleep I get to have.”
When we last caught up with Hamish, a day or two before Jane Scrolls officially opened to the public on Saturday October 10, he was elbow deep (literally) in preparation. Dough coated his hands and clothes, a result of the continuous production cycle needed to satiate the scroll-crazed crowds he was expecting.
But even if Hamish didn’t sleep a wink all last week, instead devoting every waking hour to the process, he still wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the demand he witnessed on opening day.
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Few new openings have drummed up the kind of immediate frenzy that Jane Scrolls did last weekend. A queue snaked around the corner, with hundreds of hungry punters turning up for a fix of Brisbane’s buzziest baked goods.
The response was so overwhelming that Jane Scrolls was forced to dip into its reserves, selling its Sunday stock to ensure that as few people as possible left empty-handed. Even then, the team sold out much earlier than anticipated.
“We’re doing about 300 trays of scrolls,” Hamish told us a few days earlier. “We’ve cut some markets to reduce the flow and the volume and try to support as much of our community as we can.”
Those estimates were quickly blown out of the water, but it’s easy to see why.
When it comes to cinnamon scrolls, Jane Scrolls is regarded as a bit of a local market leader. Since hitting the scene, the operation has significantly expanded, with the team now trading at eight markets across Brisbane each weekend.
Subscribe for updatesThe freshly-baked hand-rolled dough is pillowy and light, yet structurally sound enough to hold its toppings without disintegrating under pressure.
For its second weekend of trade, the Jane Scrolls crew is doing things a little bit differently. After closing on Friday to focus on shoring up its scroll supply, the team will open the doors on Saturday and Sunday, from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm, once again offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal on Saturday only.
Those who come through the door can expect a tight menu of highlights from the Jane Scrolls range, including the classic cinnamon swirl (topped with cream-cheese icing), The Billionaire (boasting a Kinder Bueno and Oreo filling with a Biscoff cream cheese coating), the Pecan Sticky Date (a spiced date swirl with sticky toffee and roasted pecans) and the salty Vegemite scroll with fresh pecorino cheese.
There’s also a trio of house-baked focaccia sandwiches on offer, featuring fillings like egg, crispy bacon and chipotle aioli, braised chicken thigh with rocket and fried onions, and a prosciutto and avocado-filled number.
Specialty coffee from Single O flows through the espresso machine, while one tap serves cold brew and another dispenses house-made chocolate milk. The concentrate is made in-house from a lactose-free full cream blend and Dutch cocoa powder.
“I’ve done a heap of testing around it just to get to the right mouthfeel and I’m still tweaking it and getting it there,” Hamish says. “We’ll use it in our mochas, ice chocolates, hot chocolates and a bunch of other cool drinks that we’re trying to come up with as well.”
While it is unlikely that Hamish’s sleep schedule will settle down any time soon, it’s hard to argue that his work ethic hasn’t directly contributed to Jane Scrolls’ success. While virality can certainly accelerate a business’s early growth, buzz can only be sustained if the person behind the venture is 100 per cent committed to the cause.
If there’s one thing you can say about Hamish, it’s that his commitment is unwavering. But, to be fair, he’s no longer doing the long hours alone.
“I’m more proud of the team itself. It’s grown past me,” Hamish says, crediting his crew for much of the business’s recent success. “It’s that hunger, I think, that people also can see and just our sheer effort.
“It’s going to take us a while to get the processes in place, get the expertise, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail again to the point where we can actually get something working. I won’t stop until we do a good job. I don’t know if we’re doing a good enough job yet, so we’re still striving for that excellence.”
Jane Scrolls is now open to the public – opening hours and further details are available in The Directory.
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