Side Piece Deli Brings Playful Pastries and Serious Sandwiches to Swanbourne

If you locked eyes with the pain au chocolat at Side Piece Deli, you’d be forgiven for doing a double-take. Long and narrow, with dozens of uniform buttery ridges, the golden pastry looks more like a sausage-roll-hasselback-potato hybrid than a traditional viennoiserie. It’s unexpected, cleverly crafted and a little bit cheeky, which is exactly the point.

This irreverence runs through the entire menu at the latest opening from The Pantry Group, which also owns Daisies Cottesloe and The Other Side.

“Side Piece is our answer to what we felt was missing locally: a pastry-led morning spot and a sandwich-driven lunch destination,” Sam Kaye, The Pantry Group’s director, tells Broadsheet. “The name plays on the idea of having something extra, something you sneak off to enjoy. It ties in perfectly with our brand [motto, which is]: ‘Your not-so-secret indulgence’. That’s exactly what we want the space to be: a little escape where you treat yourself.”

Pastry chef Eliza McCambridge-Dax keeps the pastries playful. Think smoky, sweet bacon, maple and walnut scrolls; brioche with pandan custard and coconut crumble; and a rotating cast of cookies and cakes. Savoury pastries include potato danishes, pork and fennel sausage rolls, and ham and cheese croissants layered with mustard bechamel, smoked ham and provolone.

Head chef Jason Goodorally’s sandwich line-up offers a fresh take on the familiar. Goodorally brings his Lions and Tigers pedigree to the Keralan fried chicken sandwich, elevated with kasundi aioli and pickled onion and served between two slices of house-made focaccia. A spiced onion bhaji sandwich comes with herbed hung yoghurt and fresh kachumber (a tangy South Asian salad). The fish katsu sando sees crumbed market fish from Fins Seafood, fukujinzuke pickles and tamarind tonkatsu sauce tucked into pillowy shokupan.

An all-day brunch menu runs parallel to the pastries and sangas, with avocado toast dialled up with yuzu kosho peas, kyurizuke (Japanese pickled cucumber) and miso mustard; and The Ploughman’s plate brings together a soft-boiled egg, smoked Manjimup trout, house pickles, fresh bread and cheddar.

The coffee list covers all bases with beans by Duke’s Organic, plus Pressed Earth juices, Strangelove sodas and seasonal barista-made specials (many of them Tiktok-inspired riffs, appropriately filed under the heading, “Not-here-for-long” on the menu).

The pint-sized space has been reimagined by design firm Statuo Group. Kaye explains: “We wanted to respect that history while making it feel fresh and contemporary. We’ve leaned into natural materials and thoughtful details, so it feels like it’s always belonged here, while still being unmistakably Side Piece.”

Out front, festoon lighting and the butter-yellow facade provide a warm welcome for the early crowd, with coffee pouring from 6am during the week and 6.30am on weekends. Inside, the narrow space has been fine-tuned for flow, with input from the front-of-house team. There’s a stainless steel counter softened with stone and timber features, while an expansive sun-drenched courtyard seats 26.

Side Piece
93 Shenton Road, Swanbourne
No phone

Hours:
Mon to Fri 6am–2.30pm
Sat & Sun 6.30am–2.30pm

www.sidepiecedeli.net.au
@sidepiece_deli