Attention carb lovers – The Twin is now serving breakfast and slabs of its famous focaccia
It takes more than one ingredient to make a great sandwich. That said, there’s something about The Twin’s house-made focaccia that we just can’t get enough of. If you, like us, froth The Twin’s lightly crispy, wonderfully chewy and flavourful focaccia, then you’ll be jazzed to hear that the West End cafe is now selling it (and gluten-free mountain bread) retail. The Twin’s also putting its newfound abundance of fresh focaccia to great use, debuting a tight breakfast menu to go with its roster of sandwiches.
Murrie Harris and Knives Baker never really envisioned The Twin becoming a wholesale bread shop. The duo were plenty content whipping up small batches of their delightfully spongy focaccia and seeded Jerusalem rolls for The Twin’s much-adored sandwiches and leaving it at that. Sure, they’d knock up a few focaccia slabs here and there to sell over the counter, but it was never something they pushed all that hard. And with only a small amount of prep space and gear, there was a limit to how much The Twin could produce anyway. But that didn’t stop Brisbane’s cafes and grocers from asking.
One of the more persistent enquirers was the crew behind Tarragindi’s Good Things Grocer, who wanted to stock The Twin’s focaccia in bulk on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s thanks to them that Murrie and Knives finally caved and decided to invest in a new cold room, oven and mixer in order to up production. But this story isn’t about The Twin selling its mighty fine focaccia wholesale, which it’s now doing with gusto. The duo has taken the opportunity to bolster the dine-in offering at their Vulture Street spot, which is now a cafe and a bread shop.
Last week The Twin added a newly built bread stand near the coffee machine, loaded with freshly baked portions of its phenomenal focaccia. In the fridge you’ll find The Twin’s own gluten-free mountain bread, also available to buy and take home. The crew plans to add more breads to the retail space in the future, but with more bread to work with, Murrie and Knives are first boosting The Twin’s menu. Don’t fret – The Twin’s sandwiches, including its famous tomato sandwich with mustard pickle, chips and malt-vinegar mayo, are available all day long. The newness comes in the form of breakfast, which is available until 11:00 am.
The tidy selection includes tomato bruschetta (house focaccia crowned with slow-roasted tomato and pesto), beans on toast (focaccia topped with chipotle black beans and salsa), a hearty B.L.T. (boasting bacon, kale, tomato, confit garlic mayo, barbecue sauce and, if you ask for it, a hash brown) and gluten-free toasted muesli with nuts, berry compote and coconut yoghurt.
If you pop down for lunch, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that The Twin now has a liquor licence, meaning that you can pair your sanga with a glass of Jilly Wine, a cold tin of Brisbane Brewing Co. craft beer or a trusty XXXX Gold. Next year The Twin will also extend its trading hours into the nighttime, where it will debut a small menu of drinking food and more booze bevvies. We’ll cheers to that!
The Twin Cafe & Bread Shop is open from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm Wednesday to Saturday. Head to the Stumble Guide for more info.
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