Avner’s Bakery

Avner’s Bakery is a Surry Hills spot baking chewy bagels, smoking pastrami, curing lox, fermenting juicy pickles, and crafting beloved Jewish and Eastern European sweets.

A passion project from Ed “Fast Ed” Halmagyi drawing from his Hungarian-Jewish heritage and experience as a pastry chef, Avner’s Bakery is where he’s working towards the sizable goal of creating the best bagels in Australia.

The bakery occupies a corner space on Bourke Street, with an antique wood island bench, open to the street, where the bagel magic happens. Ed can be found in the kitchen, eager for a chat or to explain some of the rich traditions behind the menu.

Bagel variations include classic bagels, variations topped with sesame and poppy seeds, and fruit-filled takes like date and orange blossom or apple and walnut.

Fillings are all made in-house from carefully selected sources and include lox with the usual suspects, ironbark-smoked pastrami with sauerkraut and tomato capsicum matbucha sauce, and a sabich combo with boiled egg, pickled cabbage, eggplant, herb salsa, hummus, and amba (a punchy mango condiment with origins in India(.

Loaves of babka, potato bread, barley bread, Polish seed bread and challah braids (Fridays only) can be taken away, as well as pastries and sweets like babka, rugelach in rotating flavours, Jewish honey cake and pressed gingerbread biscuits.

Image credit: Urban List

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