Eating Out Feature: Daily Bread

Ready to Rise

As one of Auckland’s most preeminent sourdough bakeries, Daily Bread’s Belmont outpost (based at 43 Eversleigh Road) is the perfect addition to the North Shore community.

The large open windows at the entranceway provide the ideal front row seats to watch the bakers and pastry chefs in action. Head through the bakery and out the back you will find a brand new petanque court and playground area which will keep adults and kids alike entertained for hours, while feasting on the new all-day menu, cabinet treats and fresh brews from Coffee Supreme. 2015 New Zealand MasterChef winner Tim Read is Daily Bread’s newly appointed food director and creative mastermind behind the refreshed sit-down menu. Read has curated a unique menu that reflects everything Daily Bread stands for: simple, sustainable and tasty homegrown food. With Daily Bread utilising quality produce, presented without the fuss, customers can treat their taste buds to slow-cooked eggs and bacon on Daily Bread’s signature sourdough, house-made kimchi with fried eggs or toasted oat porridge with tamarillo – to name just a few options.

Head baker, Patrick Welzenbach coowns the Belmont site along with Tom Hishon and Josh Helm – the team behind popular Ponsonby eatery, Orphans Kitchen and Kingi in Britomart. For a man of his stature, Patrick becomes almost ballerina-like the moment he steps inside the bakery, drawing on 600 years of family baking knowledge to perfect his craft. He’s moulding proofed dough with his hands, and then spins on the balls of his feet to slide a tray of golden sourdough from the oven. Flour is tossed around with dramatic effect, amidst his profound calm and concentration. Patrick’s graceful dance is one that shows innate knowledge of his craft, passed down to him from his grandfather, who learnt from his grandfather before that. The magic is beholden to Daily Bread’s signature sourdough starter. Patrick can trace his starter through 21 generations of his family back in Germany. His ancestors once worked the village oven in his hometown close to Würzburg, and bread-baking has stayed in the family ever since.

It took several attempts to clear his starter through customs, followed by a shipping container full of novelty bread-baking paraphernalia. When young Patrick finally settled in New Zealand with his wife Moni, he got straight to work. Here, he met fellow cofounders Helm and Hishon, to start their shared dream of making delicious and high-quality staples accessible to communities, which they’ve been doing since 2018. They now have two production bakeries located at Belmont and Point Chevalier and host satellite bakeries in Ponsonby, Britomart, Federal Street and Newmarket. With sourdough breads, sweets and pastries in abundance, Daily Bread is certainly worth treating yourself almost as often as its name suggests.

Open Mon-Sun 7am — 3pm 43 Eversleigh Road, Belmont hello@dailybread.co.nz 09 217 3673, https://dailybread.co.nz/