MAKER Sydney

Sydney based coffee bar / bakery MAKER is one of the coolest vegan businesses in the world and I'm here to tell you why! Firstly, look a this sign. Self love and vegan treats are basically what I'm all about. I visited another popular vegan business in the city and they had a sign letting me know that their products are guilt free. Nope! Not cool. Eating isn't something that we should be made to feel guilty about and businesses buying into damaging rhetoric about guilt free foods and clean eating makes me super angry. Bring on the self love and vegan treats!

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Secondly Maker are a social enterprise. Annabelle who makes beautiful bespoke cakes at My Little Panda Kitchen, and Kate of The Vegan Teahouse who specialise in vegan cafe classics, got together to run a 100% vegan commercial kitchen where anyone can join in and make and sell epic baked goods. I mean really?! How perfect are these people? I want to move to Sydney and be a part of this.

Thirdly their baked goodies are uh-mazing which is exactly what you'd expect from baked goods that are made and sold in a supportive environment. When I saw their cabinet full of treats I basically freaked out. How was I meant to choose? I just got everything I could fit into my belly and my bag and then went back for more the next week.

Lemon meringue pie and cherry pie! Which would you choose? I couldn't decide so I just got both.

As you can imagine from a vegan owned and operated community focussed business the people working there were the freaking best. They were so friendly and welcoming and beyond patient with our um-ing and ah-ing as well as with my allergy questions. The first time I went I was with Nick, Amanda from The Bookish Manicurist, and my buddy Josh, and we were there for ages pestering people's dogs, being indecisive, taking photos and shooting video, and popping back in to order more and more food.

As well as sweet treats MAKER offer an amazing range of savouries from sandwiches and breakfast rolls to hangover scrolls. I wasn't hungover but I grabbed one of those beauties as soon as I saw them being delivered!

The scroll was filled with tofu scramble, sausage, vegemite, and cheese and it was off the hook. I think scrolls are my new favourite food group. On our second visit, Nick, Amanda, and I were a little more chilled but we still ate as much as we could reasonably fit in before another day of Sydney based eating adventures. I started with a delicious baked doughnut because baked doughnuts are my fave' (I know. I know.) and I can't resist something pink and covered in sprinkles. 

I chased it with a slice of passionfruit meringue pie which wasn't something I'd heard of before but that's not surprising as the northern hemisphere is kind of lacking in the fun fruits department! This slice of pie was exceptional. Somehow it was even better than the lemon meringue pie I tried the previous week which I didn't think was possible at the time. The meringue itself was even more impressively fluffy than before and the passion fruit totally works here. To say that I loved it would be an understatement.

Of course I also had to try one of their cheese toasties especially once I saw that they make them on sourdough bread. This was another thing that MAKER made ridiculously well. It was perfect! I was super tempted to have a second toastie but there was just no more space in my belly.

Last but by no means least MAKER's ethics are spot on, aside from being vegan they're super queer friendly and inclusive. They're vocal about their support for gay marriage. They acknowledge the Gadigal people, the traditional owners of the land, both on their website and on a sign in their window. They also run workshops in conjunction with Sydney Community College to offer affordable cooking classes with local makers. If I lived in the city you can bet I'd be checking out this cake decorating workshop to up my cake sprucing game.

MAKER are located on Paramatta Road which is easy to get to from the centre of the city, just hop on a bus towards Parramatta from stand M at Railway Square and you'll be there in 20 minutes. If you're staying at the YHA Railway Square hostel (which I definitely recommend if you're travelling on a budget) the bus stop is super close.

Which of these treats will you be ordering when you visit MAKER? Do you have a cool business like this near you? Lemme know, I might come visit! Oh and if you'd like to see more food fun from MAKER check out Amanda's video of our eating adventures on You Tube!

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