Six Russell – A New Food Complex

Six Russell – The Beginning

Monday 16th December marked the commencement of a new food and drinks venture in the heart of Sandy Bay with the long-awaited opening of the Six Russell bakery, coffee outlet and food shop (the French would call it an Épicerie, but more of that later).

When we arrived just after the 6:30am opening there was a queue in Russell Crescent outside the new venue with people enjoying a coffee and pastry while casting their eyes over the first part of the complex to open to the public – a café-cum-restaurant will open on the same site in the new year.

The Six Russell bakery has been in operation for some time now, supplying shops throughout Hobart with their excellent pastries – we have been enjoying them at some of our favourite coffee venues such as Somewhere Coffee Bar in Elizabeth St, Shake Coffee Roasters in the heart of Moonah and Audrey Coffee in Bayfield Street in Rosny.

The pastries include perfect crullers which are a deep fried pastry made from delicate choux pastry and sprinkled with spices and sugar – one of our favourites. We will add descriptions of more of the pastries when we get time.

Now to the shop which lines the walls as you walk in to the venue towards the counter where you order your items. We also need to reinforce an issue which is relevant here.

Many years ago we used to review restaurants, but stopped reviewing when we began importing wine from France. However, we get so many requests for information about where to eat and drink throughout Australian and overseas that we have kept our foodtourist.com sites and our Instagram site active where we now tell stories about places that our readers might like to visit – and this is why we have written this story about Six Russell!

So, back to the story. When you enter Six Russell on the left hand side of the complex, you will see the “shop” on shelves attached to the wall containing a selection of excellent food products including tines of sardines, paprika flakes, Las Hermanas pimento, Lauriston Grove olive oil (Tasmanian), anchovy fillets from Ortiz, kasundi and medlar paste from the wonderful Provenance Growers (and Paulette’s must-buy book – Broccoli & other love stories), cans of Perelló olives and Brets potato chips!

There is also a glass cabinet where you order which contains both the pastries and the amazing sandwiches that are heralded with a sign above as shown below:

On the left you can see the types of bread they are offering, in the middle are the sandwiches and on the right are the Six Russell pastries.

The photo below shows the sandwiches that we enjoyed along with our espresso coffees.

You will also see the many “shop” items which include some of the best quality coffee beans available including some from Shake Roasters in Moonah – these are the same beans that will be used if you order a coffee here.

As an example we noticed the coffee beans shown below. These beans are of the Gesha variety that Columbia has become famous for growing – they are considered by many to be the highest quality Gesha beans outside of Ethiopia from where they orginate.

We like the fact that Ian who roasts the beans at Shake does not use a heavy hand and roasts lightly which allows the full flavour of these magic beans to shine through. Finca Juan Martin is the farm from which the beans were sourced.

We also source one of the products on the shelves at Six Russell, which is a vinegar we are lucky enough to import as part of our wine importing activities. These are vinegars that are made from natural wines sourced from all parts of France that are made in the Roussillon département which is close to the Spanish border.

The vinegar on display is made from old (vieux) wine made in the famous Banyuls district. You can read more about this vinegar on our Living Wines web site here.

When you drop in to Six Russell to buy some bread or sit and sip a beautiful coffee you might see Kobi Ruzicka from Dier Makr and Lucinda directing operations. He has been an influential part of the team which has created Six Russell and is key in determining what you see here and how things are cooked, but is not an owner.

If you want to know more about the coffee varieties on sale at Six Russell you can read our article about coffee on our international foodtourist Web site here.