Sydney’s suburb of Surry Hills is in no short supply of places to get your morning coffee, or venues to pick up some lunch or a sweet treat. In fact, as Ed Halmagyi discovered, there are over 70 food and beverage establishments within a 250-meter radius of where he decided to open Avner’s Bakery. So how do you stand out? Well apart from exceptional Jewish baking, Ed’s approach to hospitality and community is simple yet remarkable.
Founded by former Better Homes and Gardens chef Ed Halmagyi, this isn’t just another Sydney bakery – it’s a masterclass in community building, wrapped in the warm embrace of traditional Jewish baking.
A Return to Roots
For the former Better Homes and Gardens chef, opening Avner’s was a return to his first love. “Bakery is very much where my heart is,” he explains. “It’s the thing that’s always made me happiest.” His journey in food began as a kitchen hand in a bakery cafe, where a troubled teenager found somewhere he belonged.
I was a bit of a lost unit in a lot of ways. And so finding a group of people who were kind and patient but very, very hard-working and had very clear expectations – I think, psychologically, that works for me.”
Ed Halmagyi → Owner
After two decades as a television personality and running various food ventures, Halmagyi felt drawn back to his heart and his heritage. “I’m really, really passionate about my heritage. I think the Jewish bakery is vastly under-recognised, under-appreciated,” he says. “And the reality is—and I say this with a lot of love to all my colleagues, certainly here in Sydney—it can always be done better. There’s some great, great bakeries in Sydney, but not doing what we’re doing. So this is really about a retail product that is very, very high quality, absolutely consistent. I have no interest in going back into wholesale work.”
The Science of Location
The choice of Surry Hills wasn’t random. Halmagyi approached the location search more like a science than an art, working with his brother, a pure mathematician, to analyse census data. He knew what demographic he wanted to target: low car ownership and high pet ownership means people are likely to be walking more. Families with primary school children are also likely to walk their kids to school. People born overseas or parents born overseas means they are more likely to travel, and therefore more likely to be open to new experiences. And disposable income means, well, they can spend money.
This data-driven approach led them to Sydney’s “progressive strip” from Surry Hills through to Chippendale and all the way down to Marrickville, with Surry Hills emerging as the perfect location.
A New Approach to Community
What truly sets Avner’s apart is its approach to hospitality. “We set out to do three different things,” Halmagyi explains. “Share the cultural heritage, show Sydney and Australia what it means to be Jewish, and create a community business.”
This community-first approach manifests in countless small but meaningful ways. There’s the “random acts of donut” program, where extra sufganiyot (Israeli donuts) are given away to introduce customers to their sweet offerings. For the many dog owners in Surry Hills, there’s always a trimming of house-made pastrami waiting, and photos of neighbourhood dogs adorn the point-of-sale area, complete with star stickers for children to vote for their favourites. As Ed learned, if you make their dog or child feel special, they will feel special.
The thing about people who have young children and people who have dogs, what they really want more than anything else is for you to love their dog as much as they do. It matters to them. If you approach the problem with hospitality and you genuinely want to take care of your customers, find out what matters to them and do that. What matters to these people is their dog, so we do that.”
Ed Halmagyi → Owner
Technology Meets Tradition
To manage this bustling operation, Avner’s relies on Square’s Point of Sale system. “What I care about is having something that allows me to serve customers quickly, that works accurately, and that gives me the reporting data that I want,” Halmagyi says. “One of the big issues about the fact that we make everything by hand is that the labour cost of this business is very, very high. What we’re looking to do is to quantify trends across time, which allows us to better predict allocation of labour.” Through Square’s reporting, they can analyse category sales – from filled bagels to babka products – to optimise their labour-intensive production processes, and to introduce their customers to some less popular (but less labour intensive) products.
For front-of-house manager Maeva Effoudou, Square’s intuitive interface and flexibility have been crucial to smooth operations. “It’s straightforward and intuitive. If you want to do something, the button’s right there for it,” she says. The ability to manage their menu and update products remotely has been particularly valuable.
I can do stuff on my computer, and it updates automatically on the POS system, so that allows me to work from home. Whatever I do on my computer is going to be available on the system.”
Maeva Effoudou → Manager
Crafting Excellence
At Avner’s, everything is made in-house, from the pickles to the pastrami. Their signature lox bagel is their best seller for good reason, featuring house-cured salmon that Ed learned to make at a three-Michelin star restaurant.
“There’s very good lox in Sydney, but not in bakeries or bagelries,” says Halmagyi. “You get it at, you know, two or three chefs at restaurants where they make it. You can’t buy lox like this. You just can’t. It’s not for sale because it is at its absolute peak for about three to four days after it’s cured. That’s not the time schedule that you get with industrial supply, commercial supply.”
Effoudou emphasises this commitment to quality. “Every single item that is for here, is made here. That’s a touch that people can sense and find again in our products.”
The Future of Hospitality
For Halmagyi and his team, success isn’t just measured in dollars and cents. “Success for me would be that there are more people displaying more care and more investment in their community,” he reflects. This philosophy is evident in their hiring approach – they don’t hire for experience but for character. “I can teach you to bake,” Halmagyi says. “I cannot teach you to be lovely.”
In a city where small businesses often struggle to maintain meaningful connections with their communities, Avner’s is proving that genuine hospitality and community investment can be both good business and a force for positive change. And in a neighbourhood chocka block with cafes, they’ve found their way of standing out.
Once you’re in that saturated competition for convenience, you’re actually also in a competition for pricing. You’ve totally commoditised it. You have to be selling something else, which for us is hospitality. It’s not just an instinct and an intuition. It’s also very much a financial decision, because it is our greatest point of difference with all our competitors. We do it really, really, really well.”
Ed Halmagyi → Owner
