Dench Bakers

Dench Bakers
109 Scotchmer Street, Fitzroy North, VIC
Genovese Coffee
Best fruit danish, fruit tart & brioche


Update (yet again):

This place has moved up to 5 beans - so far there's only 3 places in Victoria with that rating!

We visited on Easter Monday - it was packed but service was still great. No surcharge either! But the hash was slightly soggier today... maybe the kitchen was rushing? Despite that, this is becoming to be one of my favourite dishes... there's not many I would order time and time again...

We had to try something different so we went with one of the specials - brioche with ricotta, rose water and baked fig. It was almost as impressive!
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Update (again):

Service by John Dench himself was delightful and attentive. He's such a sweet, kind man!

The Chive-scrambled eggs on brioche were as good as I remembered.

The Potato hash with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, rocket and poached eggs was excellent.

The fruit tart was as orgasmic as ever. And it was only $4.50 this time. Think I got cheated last time. But omg, double orgasm!

This place is moving up to 4 beans.

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Update:

Check out the updated list of "Best..." for Dench. The fruit tart was orgasmic. Pity it was a freakin $7.50! I thought they short changed me when I receive my change from a $10 note...

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You'd understand why Dench excels at what it does - Chef John Dench, who has cooked at Mario's, The Continental, Rathdowne Tavern and Enoteca Vino Bar and son Tony Dench, a baker by trade whose resume reads like a who's who of bread in this town, including working at Baker D. Chirico since its inception and, before that, Babka, come together with a shared love of food.

Breads sit on exposed frame shelves, tempting all that eat here to buy a loaf back. There's house white, house stone, olive, baguette, baton, walnut, spelt, grain, farmhouse, light rye, foccacia, schwarzbrot, raisin loaf, ciabatta, brioche - mostly around $5-$6. We bought a ciabatta - disappointing as all the breads looked so good.

Other items to tempt you include the pastries (I was torn between the chocolate croissant and the fruit danish (both $4.50) which I eventually bought and was divine),the sweet and savoury muffins, the egg and bacon pie ($7.50), the duck and shitake pie ($11.90), the banana cake, etc.

Dench is all about service and quality.

Customers sit at compact tables along the wall or at the window bench looking out to those sitting under the red Genovese umbrellas (We had a very well-behaved maltese-king charles to entertain us). It’s not a group venue - probably not ideal for groups bigger than 3 or 4. We had to wait for a table but staff were happy to serve us coffees while we cluttered up their pathway just so we wouldn't freeze outside.

Glasses of water came without asking after we were seated and John came out to take our orders personally. The creamy, chive-scrambled eggs were served on the best brioche I've ever tasted ($9.50) with a side of organic bacon ($3.50).

The filled croissant with ham, cheese and tomato ($8.50) was decent.

There are also daily specials like the fried eggs, corn fritters, bacon and avocado salsa.

I didn't fancy the red pesto scrambled eggs on olive toast with Italian sausages but that’s ‘cos I'm not a fan of capsicum (the red in pesto), olives and sausages. But others gulped it down. All I can say is that I ate the entire sausage and the bread was much better than the one with olive spread on it from Spuntino.

There's other items available in the all-day breakfast menu like French toast with maple syrup or berry compote ($9.50), granola, etc. The lunch menu includes prepared paninis, focaccias and sandwiches ($9.50). A highly recommended venue - even if only to take away some pastries.