With no soggy bottoms in sight, Little Sutton Bakehouse lives up to its Instagram reputation

I’m a sucker for some sexy social media set in an artisan bakery. And since Daniel Sparrow and Omar Muscat took over the local bakery in Sutton and turned it into the Little Sutton Bakehouse in April 2022, they have been churning out some of the best in the region.

The bakery, formerly known as The Baker at Sutton, has come leaps and bounds in the last three years thanks to the more than 40 years of combined hospitality experience Daniel and Omar’s partnership brings to the town.

Aside from the slow, sensual shots of latte art that continually drop into Canberrans’ feeds, these guys back up their alluring content with some solid baked goods, both sweet and savoury, that have caught the attention of the day trip crowd.

Heading to the bakery on a steamy summer Saturday morning, I was on a mission to find out if this destination bakery was all Instagram promised. And I was on high alert for any soggy bottoms, the pastry trap too many regional bakeries fall into.

If you’re uncertain as to the whereabouts of Sutton, you only need to follow the line of lycra-clad cyclists down the Federal Highway and onto Sutton Road, and you’ll be delivered right to its door.

In a town of 1500 people, any given Saturday morning doubles the population as large numbers of day trippers file into the bakery looking for their caffeine and pastry fix.

Once inside, large cabinets lined with perfectly pert sweets beckon you to choose. Walls lined with golden sourdough promise the goods are baked fresh daily. And in case you were sceptical, in the background a baker slides trays in and out of the ovens to prove the point.

Open six days a week from 7 am until 4:30 pm, the menu caters to a range of meals from brunchers to lunchers and snackers and grazers.

If sweets are the order of the day, rows of uniform treats are lined up like soldiers. Mini cheesecakes, mango tarts, snack-size chocolate tortes, palm-sized carrot cakes and bite-sized lemon meringues have all been portioned to cater to those keeping bakery-related obesity at bay, an appreciated touch as I order the largest of the lot, the vanilla slice.

The panini bar has your more substantial lunch needs covered with baguettes, toasties, sandwiches and rolls being made to order.

The pie menu runs the gamut of staple fillings including classic beef, country chicken, cheese and bacon and my choice of the day, pepper steak.

Sausage rolls come in two varieties, Australia’s darling of the beef world, Angus, and cheese and spinach for those who would like to see Angus in the field and not on the plate.

The savoury offerings are rounded out with quiches in two varieties and pizetta (mini pizzas) in two varieties.

With Daniel’s background working with the team at Redbrick, the well-known Canberra roasters supply the coffee; other drinks include fresh squeezed juices and shakes.

Sitting down inside the bustling bakery, a mix of locals and visitors come and go. Ample indoor and outdoor seating accommodates the masses well, but I felt a little out of place in jeans in what was obviously a bring-your-own-lycra affair.

Sitting down to a large baked spread, it didn’t feel quite as hard earned as for the cyclists who had ridden in from Canberra. But hey, we’re all entitled to a pie every now and then.

On the pies, not a soggy bottom in sight. The pepper steak filling had tender beef suspended in a rich gravy that had a lingering pepperiness and the pastry was structurally sound and deliciously buttery.

The vanilla slice was a classic mille-feuille with three layers of extremely flaky pastry, a construction that’s always amazed me with its ability to explode in all directions at first bite. In this case, I would lick the filling off fingers and plate.

The sausage roll also worshipped at the altar of the non-soggy bottom. The Angus beef carried good flavour and the pastry was flaky and golden in all the right ways. In true Australian fashion, I smothered it in tomato sauce while vibing to the sweet sound of 80s saxophone musak.

A trip to a country bakery isn’t complete without some roadies, so with my sourdough in hand and two pizzetta to heat up at home, we cruised back down the highway and marvelled at how anyone could ride home from a bakery on a bicycle with a full stomach. But maybe others are more reserved in their consumption of baked goods to accommodate the trip.

Little Sutton Bakehouse is located at 1 Victoria St, Sutton. You can feast your eyes on more of their creations on the Little Sutton Bakehouse Facebook and Instagram pages.