What is the furthest you’d travel for a pastry? Not just any pastry – a damn good one. Some carb connoisseurs have no qualms about being behind the wheel for more than an hour to get a fix, and while you might scoff at the plausibility of that statement, Rizka Krisnandika of Croix Croissant has proof.

“We’ve had a customer come in for our pistachio pearls from the Sunshine Coast,” Rizka reveals. “We were sold out at the time, but I made a fresh batch right away for them.”

This likely isn’t the only story of its kind Rizka has. At Croix Croissant, it’s common for guests to travel great distances – from across Brisbane and up from the Gold Coast – to get a fix of the goodies that fill the cabinet at Rizka and Audi Krisnandika’s rule-breaking Hillcrest bakery. If you don’t already know, Melbourne-born Croix Croissant is famed for its out-of-the-box baked goods, which sees the team cross-pollinating cultures and flavours into eyebrow-raising and, most importantly, tongue-tantalising results. Croix Croissant has surged in popularity since making its Queensland debut in January. Initially, Rizka and Audi’s vision of expansion included small satellite locations serviced from Hillcrest’s production kitchen. But, as things turned out, local response has been so rabid that the couple had to change tack.

“I can say the growth that we have here in Queensland has been way faster than in Melbourne,” Rizka tells us. “The demand in Hillcrest was more than what we expected, so we just thought to find another place that had a bigger kitchen.”

Last week, Rizka and Audi celebrated the soft opening of Croix Croissant’s second Brisbane outpost – a bakery nestled in the heaving heart of Newstead. Positioned on the point where Masters Street and Wyandra Street meet Commercial Road, the angular space (previously home to No.68 Cafe & Bar) offered ample room to construct a larger pastry kitchen, as well as room for 30 seats across the interior and slender outdoor deck. A swift fit-out has brightened up the space, with the crew repainting the floors, installing new light fixtures and constructing a service counter and kitchen divider using white tiles and glass blocks. It’s an unusual space to build a bakery but, according to Rizka, that made it all the more fitting for Croix.

“We make more quirky types of pastries,” says Rizka. “We’re not sophisticated – we’re not a French or European kind of boutique. This location just ticked all the boxes.”

As soon as it was operational, Croix Croissant Newstead’s kitchen was put to work filling the site’s pastry cabinets with a range of sweet and savoury items. From the jump, locals gravitated towards Rizka and Audi’s more experimental creations, including their pandan-infused croissants, double beef croissant burgers, lemon cheesecake cruffins and Biscoff crolls – not to mention the coffee, which is supplied by Melbourne roaster Motobean.

The range doesn’t stop there – Croix offers 20 kinds of pastries every day, including vegan-friendly options, Crookie Monster croissants and creme brulee danishes. All pastries are made using Audi’s finely honed dough recipe, which involves a three-day slow-fermentation process. It seems as if Croix Croissant matches Newstead’s freak perfectly – a fact that is giving the bakery’s brains trust early confidence to push the boundaries and expand the offering further (hot tip: brunch might soon be on the agenda).

“I think we can do flavours that are really exotic, like sesame and matcha,” says Rizka.  “We will have some specials for each location, but we’re just studying the area, the customer profile and what might work.”

Croix Croissant is now open to the public – head to the Stumble Guide for operating hours and contact details.