Byron Bay’s new Bay Grocer – in the space once occupied by Green Garage – is now heading into its third month of trading. Owners Sarah Swan and Jeremy Burn moved into the space in late January and continue to also operate 100 Mile Table cafe and catering from Byron’s Arts and Industry Estate.
Bay Grocer, on the corner of Browning and Tennyson Sts, offers a food store/grocery with a cafe out the front. The spruce-up features a kitchen garden now growing tarragon, galangal, lemongrass, parsley, and all manner of fun things for use down the line.
On the cafe side of things, menu highlights include housemade granola and bircher, bacon and egg pie, an endlessly rotating range of beautiful salads and sandwiches, as well as housemade focaccia, Japanese and Basque cheesecakes, eclairs, and all manner of sweets and snacks, all served alongside Allpress Coffee.
Roast chickens from Elgin Valley are roasted each day for customers to take home and, as the weather cools, soups also in 1-litre jars. An extensive selection of take-home meals will be available instore from early April – think lasagne, eggplant parmigiana, butter chicken, mac’n’cheese, sour yellow curry, and classic pasta sauces that are ever-changing family favourites. Customers will find some 100 Mile Table classic dressings on the shelves too, like lemon myrtle, miso ranch, and bang bang.
‘So many beautiful local farms are represented here instore,’ says Sarah, ‘with organics coming from Boon Luck Farm, Hungry Earth Ecology, and Conscious Ground among others.’ Bay Grocer sells portioned meat from Trevor Mead Butchery and organic poultry from Brooklet Springs. They have the wonderful Salumi Australia deli meats and lots of beautiful cheeses from Byron Bay Cheese Co and Burringbar cheesemaker Debra, as well as an international selection of cheeses from Will Studd, jamon and all the pastas, passatas, pickles, and chutneys.
‘We always champion small and local,’ says Jeremy, ‘but it’s great here at Bay Grocer to also sink our teeth into so many quality imported goods. We are not everything to everyone but we offer so much of what people need and plenty of what they want.’
Of their other ventures, 100 Mile Table is on the market but still operating – business as usual in the industrial estate – with wedding season back on at full steam.
Swan has seen the inside of kitchens at The Bayswater Brasserie and Bathers Pavilion in Sydney, plus had a 14-year stint with the Rockpool Group, as a chef, in marketing, media liaison, website, and social-media management. Burn has worked with the Hipgroup in Auckland, which owned and operated 10 of that city’s most-awarded cafes and restaurants.
Operating hours: 7 days, Monday–Saturday, 6.30am–7pm; Sunday 6.30am–5pm.
Instagram: @baygrocer / website: www.baygrocer.com
Bay Grocer. 63 Tennyson St, Byron Bay. Phone 5605 8407
