Spreading Their Wings
Lovers of popular Nightcliff haunt, Lucky Bat Café & Pizzeria, can rejoice! The fave northern suburbs hangout spot has spread its wings, opening new premises in the heart of the Darwin CBD.
Bat Bakery, as the new digs are called, has the same quirky décor and ambience its parent café is renowned for, with Moorish-inspired ceramic cutlery holders, pot plants and vintage wallpaper.
The new location also enables owners, Justin Schmidt and Danny Crichton, to expand production of the scrumptious breads, pastries and other bakery treats that Lucky Bat regulars know and love. Yes, that means more spanakopita and chocolate croissants everyone!
“The idea with Bat Bakery is to create a central hub where we have more space. We’ve invested in new machinery to make it easier for bigger production runs,” explains Danny.
The new location also showcases the tasty, wholesome daytime fare Lucky Bat does best, including a mouth-watering array of sophisticated salads. Think Ottolenghi-inspired creations like carrot and quinoa roasted in honey and dukkah with red onion and herbs, cauliflower salad with dried cranberries in a herbaceous yogurt dressing, or roast capsicums with butter beans, chives and cannellini beans. Yum!
“Salads always get forgotten but they can be an amazing, satisfying, filling, delicious lunch. And they can be really healthy too,” says Danny.
“There’s a real gap in the market for salads for office workers. There’s not many places in town that are doing it.”
The new bakery-café also has plans to start producing hand-made slow-cooked meat and veggie curry pies. Yes puh-lease!
In another exciting development, the café has a small retail section with funky, screen-printed merchandise up for grabs alongside a range of hand-crafted preserves and seasonings like eggplant chutney, kasundi, dukkah, za’atar, jams, and pickles, so you can add a dash of Lucky Bat flavour to your meals at home.
With a brand new coffee machine serving rich Genovese coffee and a delicious juice menu, Bat Bakery brings the best of the Nightcliff venue to you in an easily accessible location for your next lunch break.
Salad anyone?
Bat Bakery
WHEN MON–FRI | 7AM-2PM
AT 15 KNUCKEY ST, DARWIN
INFO facebook.com/batbakery
Thumbnail: Danny Crichton and Justin Schmidt
