Lines out the door: Inside Brisbane croissant shop with cult following

Written by Anooska Tucker-Evans and published 31 July 2023 on Couriermail.com.au

Lune Croissanterie attracts queues out the door and attracts customers from across the world. Now we can reveal what really goes on inside the pastry powerhouse.

For executive chef of the Melbourne-born business, Chloe Thomas, it’s “a s**tload of love” and baking them fresh throughout the day.

“What sets our croissants apart from other bakeries is we bake fresh throughout the day,” says Ms Thomas, who works between the brand’s three Melbourne stores and two Brisbane outlets, with two Sydney shops also scheduled to launch next year.

“Typically bakeries start at the crack of dawn, bake off all the pastries and the one you come at lunchtime and buy could have been there since 6am. We bake ours throughout the day and the one that you collect will be less than an hour old.”

However, it takes more than just regularly loading up an oven to reach the level of success and fame achieved by this croissant kingdom that sells tens of thousands of pastries each week across Australia and attracts queues out the door, many of which are patrons visiting from across the world.

Founded in 2012 by aerospace engineer-turned-baker Kate Reid, Lune is not your average bakery but an expertly run production house with the mechanical timings and attention to detail that would have been necessary in Ms Reid’s previous job as an aerodynamicist for Formula 1 team Williams Racing.

A day spent inside the operation is to witness an intensely strict schedule – all dictated by the pastries – where chefs start at 6am, with the croissants taking an incredible three days to make from creating the dough, to forming the pastries and then cooking and garnishing them.

A Cherry Ripe flavour.

Much of the process is done in what has been dubbed “the cube” – a special temperature-controlled, glass pastry prism set to 18C degrees to ensure optimal conditions for the dough.

The team of kitchen hands and chefs turn out 14 different pastries daily, including the brand’s classics such as the original, almond and kouign amann, plus a variety of buttery delights that change monthly.

These monthly alternating creations, such as a Greek-inspired spanakopita scroll or an Iced Vovo croissant, are partly what has made Lune the superstar it is, with loyal fans queuing at the beginning of each month for a taste of what’s new.

“We take collaboration from all of the team – both Melbourne and Brisbane – to come up with various different flavours which might take inspiration from vacations or childhood memories.”

On Tuesday the team will be launching its fresh August menu, which will include new and returning favourites such as a coco rough, pain aux raisin, choc orange and almond, and a yuzu cheesecake cruffin