FIRST LOOK: Queue for cake, cookies and scrolls at hotly anticipated Stanmore bakery

Ard is one of the most anticipated bakery opening in Sydney this year. On Saturday, a long queue formed outside self-taught baker Christiana Daaboul’s first bricks-and-mortar bakery in Stanmore, lured by beautiful Instagram photos of mango and white sesame sponge cake, miso caramel cookies and pistachio banoffee pie.

The weekend soft launch welcomed the public to Ard’s small, light-filled space on Stafford Road for the first time. It marks the next stage of Daaboul’s three-year journey from her first market stall, to competing on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, to a pop-up micro bakery with a two-hour line-up and a spot on Good Food’s Essential Sydney Cafes & Bakeries Guide.

Daaboul says it was that moment – at Ard’s last pop-up at Greens Supermarket in May – when everything changed: “There had been crowds before but not like that … It was shocking to me, in a good way.

“After that, I felt this strong drive to just dedicate all of my time and energy to this.”

By September, she’d left her corporate career and started working with her brother-in-law to transform a former battery shop into a “romantic, cosy” bakery, which replicated the feel of her home kitchen. It features deep red awnings, sheer white cafe curtains, and handwritten signs on paper doilies.

There are 15 baked products to choose from, some seasonal (such as the gingerbread bun with cinnamon cognac glaze) and some regular (including the baklava, which started it all). Specialty coffee from Summer Hill roastery Headlands is available, along with specialty drinks such as malted maple matcha and brown sugar and lemon yensoon (anise) tea.

Outside, there are enough wood benches and stools to seat about 15 people. Inside, customers pass a display with cinnamon buns and butterscotch coconut cake, before hitting the takeaway counter, manned by Daaboul’s nephew.

While Daaboul does most of the baking herself, her mum makes the carrot cake and apricot jam shortbread.

“She has made that shortbread for a very long time, using a Lebanese apricot jam that’s much more tart … It’s really delicious and really simple, and simple is best when it comes to the classic bakes,” Daaboul says.

Daaboul has taken tens of thousands of social media followers on her journey, from developing recipes on Substack to installing awnings on Instagram. At Ard, she’ll continue to welcome customers into her process, with an open bakery kitchen and the occasional experimental special.

“[My baking] has evolved a lot,” she says. “In the beginning it was spontaneous and fun … but the more I fell in love with the process, [the more] I started to hone in on the science of it … and simplify what I do, doing less with more effect.”

Ard will open from Tuesday to Sunday from mid-January, with a limited menu served from the coffee window on weekdays, and the full menu on weekends. But you might not need to wait until the official launch – Daaboul has hinted at one more opportunity to check out Ard early, with details to be shared on Instagram in the coming weeks.

Ard
1/2A Stafford Street, Stanmore, instagram.com/ardsydney_

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