Bakery wars at Southlands

MelonHead; “It is inhabited by many fine restaurants and several other eating…” can you name one for me?
Pasha’s is ok for pide and coffee, Chilli Kitchen ok (just)Plaka and Con’s mmm well lets just leave them alone, the fish shop near the Asian grocery is closed and Naked Fish on Mawson Dr (previously Fisho King or something) isn’t bad fish and chips, Iron Chef is crap and the other Thai joint not bad but expensive.
Have I missed any? Fine selction but not “fine” in quality IMO.
Feasible takeaway joints or passable eat-ins if you’ve been on the p!ss but fine???
The butcher has fine quality meat though(not the Halal, saw a delivery made there before xmas out of a pork wholesaler’s delivery truck from Sydney, halal eh?), Saigon Hotbake has great bread, 2nd hand bookshops (2) are good.

And have you ever seen such a concentration of hair dressers and barbers???

The bakery used to have about a dozen tables out front under the awning but is now restricted to four. Bruni’s used as a pretext that they needed unfettered access to the electical services box which is on the projecting wall at the end of the bakery furthest from Bruno’s so faces along the footpath. Hence, the space for the entire width of the shop and projecting out from shopfront for 3 metres or so is now unusable. One wonders how often there would be be need to access that box. If it contains the power meters then the meter reader would need access at certain times (and there may be prescribed requirements for that) but how often would Bruno’s staff need to access it?

Bruno’s chocolates are, at best, ordinary eating. They look great, thus adding to the disappointment. I was once served loose chocolates packed by an ungloved hand. Their christmas cake looked far better than it tasted. All in all, not a great place to go.

As mentioned earlier, All Things Chocolate in Kingston is the place to go for your chocolate goodies. Lindy’s chocolates will not disappoint.

It sounds like the bakery and Bruno’s deserve each other.

Also the comment about ” . . . where is Southlands?” It’s a well kept secret that covers an area the size of a large city block. It is inhabited by many fine restaurants and several other eating and drinking establishments, a supermarket and some of the best alternate retail in Canberra. ie NOT Westfield, Lend Lease, QIC etc……

Like a fr’instance?

As I said, I’ve only heard one side, which seems to be about taking away access to a profitable chunk of the Italian Bakery business – heir outside seating.

What else has been going on?

This mob at the bakery have been arseholes for years

They caused problems before they moved in and their form hasn’t changed.

Leo & Zoey from what was Stavros could enlighten many.

Bruno’s has sadly inherited the problem now.

Same bloke, same shop, same scintillating chokky. He’s been at Southlands Shopping Centre in Mawson, Woden Valley for about 6 years

i always think dobinson’s should move their chairs and tables adjacent their shop – the big poles in the middle of the walkway effectively make the thoroughfare past them a squeeze; so not an unjustified complaint, prima facie but seems a silly thing to piss about – someone oughta film this, make a doco about it.

and btw, where is this ‘southlands’ of which you speak? i used to love bruno’s at n’bundah – an ex-partner worked there for a while and he was a typical conservative arrogant swiss but brilliant at his trade. haven’t seem him for years; wondered where he’d got to. his champagne truffles were scintillating.

I think it’s kind of cute ….

There’s plenty of room to walk on the pavement alongside both shops – the tables and chairs leave heaps of room for the footpath near the road to be completely clear. I think what Bruno’s might be complaining about is that the tables from the Italian place might make it unclear as to how to get to Bruno’s front door (the outdoor seating for both establishments abut each other). It’s hardly an OH&S problem – moreso territorial pissings, to my mind.

It is really annoying when cafe chairs and tables get in the way of people wanting to walk through. If that’s a genuine grievance on Bruno’s part I’ll side with Bruno. His chocolate isn’t all that good though – overpriced – tastes like the Singapore-produced version of Caillebaut.

Shove it up your a-hole Bruno’s. You’re just creating bad publicity for yourself.
I’m going to go to this bakery which I have never been to and sign this petition, go into Bruno’s and fart…

If I worked in chocolate in Canberra, I’d close for January and quite a lot of February.

I was chatting to Lindy Butcher of All Things Chocolate the other day (to be honest, asking after her chocolate with the cardomom filling) and we agreed that trying to work chocolate [her] or get it home in a reasonable state [me] when it was hot enough for chocolate to liquify at room temperature was just craziness.

Whatever else you say about the man he makes great chocolate though.

And it sounds as if the italians were spoiling for a fight even before he moved in there.

I find it annoying that Brunos closes for the month of January. He obviuosly doesn’t need the dough or is too busy fighting silly battles (just like when he was at Narrabundah)

Prolly, the Saigon Hot Bake rather than Dominos; I am unimpressed by their bread or coffee.

bubzie said :

Amen.

I shall stick to the other bakery across the road.. 🙂

Dominos pizza? Ewwwwwwwwww. Gross.

imarty said :

They both make crap coffee, bread is massively over priced at Brunos and just crap at Italian.

Amen.

I shall stick to the other bakery across the road.. 🙂

They both make crap coffee, bread is massively over priced at Brunos and just crap at Italian.

FOOD FIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHT!!!!!!

The logical thing to do would be to settle this with a FOOD FIGHT!

I love the Italian bakery for lunch. However, it is rather noisy. I would only go to Bruno’s for chocolatey treats, if I could afford them.

Italian Bakery is one of the best spots to grab a weekend breakfast.

Not that I had much interest in doing so beforehand, but I will *never* go to Bruno’s after hearing about this.

When the news came that Bruno’s was moving next to the Bakery, no one in the Bakery was happy.

Having gone there many times a week for lunch when teaching nearby, the staff lamented about the possible ‘tactics’ that would be used by Bruno’s once they moved in. One was that there would be a dispute re: tables and chairs.

Seems they were right and that was now 6 years ago….

I reckon Bruno’s does the best bread in Canberra – far superior to Silo. But that italian bakery does the best canoli… Let’s hope a truce is called before there is any victim.