Retail bakery and coffee bar next venture for Whanganui's SourBros

Matt Ellingham (left) and John Wilson are opening SourBros Bakery and Coffee Bar in Ingestre St.

A bakery full of fermented goodness will open its doors in Whanganui next week.

SourBros Bakery and Coffee Bar is the latest business development for John Wilson and Matt Ellingham who started baking sourdough bread, and selling it at the Whanganui River Markets and several local outlets, last year.

Now they have decided to take the next step and open their own outlet at 77a Ingestre St, selling their sourdough and other fermented products and employing a barista to take care of the coffee.

"It will be more a coffee bar than a sit-down cafe," Ellingham said.

The premises already had a functional commercial kitchen so Wilson and Ellingham did not have those set-up costs but have added a baker's oven, made a huge wooden shaping table and have a mixer about to arrive.

The massive oven cost just $28.

"We got it in Mt Maunganui," Wilson said.

"It had fallen off a freight truck."

The glass in the oven doors had broken and Wilson had to "jigsaw" the broken bricks to fit back inside the oven. Whanganui's Garmac Engineering built new doors for it.

A mixer will be added to the bakery's equipment next week, with Wilson relieved he will no longer have to mix everything by hand.

They have been trying out some new baked products and have had a good response from people who have tested them.

"We'll be keeping it simple and keeping it focused around the bread," Wilson said.

"There'll be some food like sandwiches, toasties and bagels. I've been getting into filo pastry lately and making strudels and spanakopita.

"Our philosophy is fermenting grains to make it easier for people to digest.

"I've always wanted to do something with food but I never thought I actually would. I've got ideas I would love to put into a cafe outlet."

Cookies and cakes will be coming out of the kitchen and Wilson is experimenting with pickles that will feature in the bakery's sandwiches.

"We are doing what we like to do and making that marketable," Ellingham said.

"There's definitely a market in Whanganui for that type of food. A lot of our market customers have been asking us for that."

SourBros started out sharing the kitchen at Lucky Bar + Kitchen, had its first market stall in February 2018 and moved to the Ingestre St premises at the end of March this year.

"It's good having our own space," Ellingham said.

"We have the opportunity to do more bakes and have a retail presence as well."

Their current customers include people who come from South Taranaki and Taupō for their bread and they supply local restaurants and cafes including Rutland Arms Inn, The Citadel, Burger Cartel and Honest Kitchen as well as Bin Inn Whanganui.

The bakery will open on Tuesday, June 25, operating Tuesdays-Fridays from 7am to 1.30pm. SourBros will still have a stall on Saturdays at the Whanganui River Markets, at least for the foreseeable future.