More people want more of John Demetrios’s wonderful pastries more often, and the people are going to get them at the Butter Days founder’s Lennox Street Local, a brand-new emporium of all things baked, sweet and savoury.
While you can expect to see a handful of Demetrios’s calling cards in the cabinet – the signature sunshine bun and those gargantuan, gooey, two-hander job cinnamon rolls – this isn’t Butter Days 2.0. Lennox Street Local is a little moodier, a little more mature, leans towards lunch and lands a touch closer to a café.
“Instead of trying to copy and paste what we’ve built there, we decided to create something new, but the pastries will still be our main focus,” says Demetrios.
That’s not to say he won’t be having some fun with it all behind the counter, though. Lunch is a good time and comes toasted like a jaffle but made with croissants. He calls it the croissant jaffle. Go figure. What hides inside those piping hot pockets of pastry is up to you: will it be a cacio e pepe-inspired filling or pulled wagyu and jalapeño cream? Jaffles made with the baker’s standout sourdough are also available for anyone wanting to dial down the hecticness without compromising on deliciousness, while a strawberries and cream cake by the slice rounds out the sweetie treaties on the opening menu.
Signature drinks. Would it be a café in Melbourne without a tasty little edit of cold brew bombarded with cold foam? We can only dream. Here, we’re looking at a rather tasteful cacao husk syrup and hazelnut offering, plus a Mont Blanc making moves with mandarin.
Demetrios is playing to the location’s strengths: the former laundromat’s window serves as a takeaway coffee bar for Richmond’s corporate crowd. And if you’d like to sit in, you can do that too. There’s room for about 20 Demetrios stans to stay a while, regardless of whether it’s a sunshine bun or naughty cinnamon roll you’re after.
Lennox Street Local, 253 Lennox St, Richmond, opens early November, @lennoxstreetlocal