Wait until you see the talent behind this ruby red bayside bakery

Dan Bowles, like many Brisbane locals, has done his time living in Teneriffe and New Farm. And he leant in more than most, opening two popular (but now closed) cafes in the area, Little Loco and Miss Jones.

But it was when Bowles moved to Carina that it occurred to him the opportunities available in the city’s suburbs.

“I thought, ‘New Farm, Teneriffe: that’s where you need to have a cafe,’” says Bowles, who also operates Sister in Hawthorne. “Then we moved out to the suburbs and thought, ‘There’s nowhere to go out here’. All the coffee shops around us were mediocre and absolutely pumping. That’s when we changed our approach.”

Since then, Bowles have opened Butter in Gaythorne and Alby’s in Kedron.

Now comes Ilo Bakehouse in Wynnum. It opens tomorrow, having taken over the Wynnum Esplanade premises previously occupied by Island View Cafe, a fish and chip shop. Bowles is in partnership in the cafe with long term Sister manager Tram Phan.

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“A friend of my wife’s was driving past one night and saw this little for-sale sign – it wasn’t advertised online or anything,” Bowles says. “She called us straightaway and I was out there at 8am the next morning. A few hours later I’d paid a deposit.”

If that sounds impetuous, the Bowleses and Phan already had the concept for Ilo ready to go. They’d just been waiting for the right space.

“We’ve always had this bakery concept,” Bowles says. “Tram had been with us for three years. She’s always had a dream of opening her own bakery. We’d been planning it together for a while and then this Wynnum space just popped up and we jumped at it.”

Also onboard is pastry chef Lindsay Krahenbring, who brings stacks of experience to the project after leading the kitchen at Darvella, and lengthy stints at Quay, Bentley and Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney. In short, there’s plenty of talent behind this place.

There’s no menu at Ilo – just 12 pastries baked in-house daily and neatly displayed on the counter. Beyond a clutch of core products, what Phan and Krahenbring bake will constantly evolve but expect creations such as orange and cardamon knots, almond miso butterscotch croissants, blueberry and custard sun buns, and fennel and lemon curd kouign amann.

“Our point of difference is our sourdough croissant,” Bowles says. “Our plain croissant is baked off our own sourdough starter. A lot of the pastries use that starter. Everything from scratch to product-on-the-shelf is a three-day process. We’re not pulling things out of the freezer and chucking them in the oven.”

Coffee is by Single O. Beyond espresso there are two bench-top taps, one of which pours a miso butterscotch iced latte, the other a matcha, both of which can be topped with a tonka bean cold foam.

Designed by Daha Architecture, the shop itself is a fetching ruby red bolthole that looks across Wynnum Esplanade towards the bay beyond. There are a handful of tables inside; otherwise seating is al fresco out front and in a cute shaded courtyard on the right side of the venue. Branding is by Tiger Hsu, who worked with Bowles on the opening of Butter and Alby’s.

“We really want it to also be a long-term venue that’s here for the community,” Bowles says. “A place that people can come to each day, grab a coffee and a pastry and gather with friends. Eighty per cent of your customers at any good cafe are the regulars. That’s the backbone.”

Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.