BAKERY + PRODUCE PROS
Leaders in transformation, these restaurants and stores supplied baked goods and gourmet groceries at a time when supermarket shelves were empty.
ST ALI GENERAL STORE
Calling St Ali coffee roasters or a café no longer suffices. In response to the pandemic, it produced hand sanitiser, sustainable hemp and copper face masks, and ran a general store, which showcased the best producers from right across Victoria.
SEASONS FRUIT MARKET ONLINE
When lockdown saw Sydney’s Chinatown shuttered, the hit to this mostly wholesale grocery store was instant. So the Fu family decided to take Seasons Fruit Market online, selling home-delivered Asian groceries. The online store was a radical change, considering the shop only installed an Eftpos machine in late 2019. But the future-proofed online store is now here to stay.
KING & GODFREE GROCERIES
Just after a substantial renovation transformed King & Godfree from deli and bottle shop to a sleek dining hub, Melbourne’s oldest licensed grocery store deftly returned to its roots offering an extensive, Italian-leaning array of grocery, deli and bottle shop items alongside a take-home meals menu of Italy’s greatest hits.
THAI KEE IGA: CHEF MEALS
This independent grocery store in Sydney’s Haymarket supplied chef-prepped meals from the likes of Ho Jiak, Chaco Ramen, Ippudo and Sydney Cebu Lechon, as well as chilli oil made by Patrick Friesen and dumplings by Lotus head chef Sam Young.
TEDESCA OSTERIA’S CURATED WEEKLY BOX
Brigitte Hafner’s Mornington Peninsula osteria was created with a fierce focus on local produce when it opened in January. No surprise then that its beautifully considered Weekly Box of cooked goods and raw produce stuck to the theme. Local lamb, vegetables, cheese and fruit came in themed combinations, matched with cocktails and wine.
BRAE PRODUCE BOX
Dan Hunter and his team had put too much love into the vegetable gardens, orchards and paddocks surrounding Brae to let any of that good stuff go to waste. So they became market gardeners, selling boxes of fresh organic produce alongside baked goods from the woodfired oven, takehome meals and a few groceries.