Popular pastry wholesaler opened its first retail store
Fold, which supplies pastries to cafes like Gang Gang, Dante’s Deli and Spread Deli, opened its first brick-and-mortar store last week.
When Fold co-owners Grace Chen and Christina Quidacciolu-Goetz opened the pastry wholesale business Fold, they wanted to start something that “wasn’t as prevalent in Adelaide as other states”.
“Grace is my partner – we met in Queensland, and previously, she had a cafe, which I then also helped to run,” Christina says.
“There’s always been that passion there for running a business… and so when we relocated to Adelaide for personal reasons initially Grace was a barista in several spaces around Adelaide but, really, she wanted to open up another business.
“We saw that there was maybe a little bit of a hole in the industry because there are definitely some companies out there that do provide wholesale, but they can’t necessarily provide to the whole of Adelaide.”
Although they’ve only been open just over a year, Fold provides pastries to cafes and businesses like Gang Gang Eden Hills, Dante’s Deli, Spread Deli and more.
The tiramisu flavoured mocktail
Christina says opening up a retail space was always in the plan, they “just didn’t know when it was going to happen”.
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“I suppose we just wanted to establish ourselves and make a name for ourselves to some degree,” she says.
“I feel like we have got people that know us now because we’re in quite a few cafes around Adelaide.
“Even sometimes we’ll get people calling up and saying ‘do you have a retail space?’ And we’re like ‘not yet’.
“It’s definitely been on the cards but we didn’t want to jump into it straight away for sure.”
Fold café opened on Valentine’s Day in the old shops next to the Entertainment Centre on Port Road in Hindmarsh. They will specialise in pastries, of course, along with coffee and a range of mocktails.
“Grace is a coffee fanatic – she loves all the science behind it and everything. She totally gets it,” Christina says, while Grace, fittingly, makes a coffee behind her.
“We’ve got normal cold brew, batch brew, regular milk coffee, anything. And then we’ll have a guest roster from all over, like Australia, China, Europe,” Grace says from the counter.
“We have two coffee machines. One is for our milk coffees and our mocktail drinks, and then the other one is a Decent [Espresso] which means we can change the water ratio, then change the pressure or change the flow from the machine to control the extraction.”
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“I don’t understand it. It’s all too much science for me,” Christina laughs.
The Hawthorn mocktail
Christina says Fold’s retail space will be offering different pastries to what they sell wholesale.
“What we have in the wholesale are the almond croissant, the plain croissant, the pain au chocolat, a Danish that changes seasonally… we’ve got a couple of cookies and some gluten-free cakes,” Christina says.
“So here we’ll be offering a variation of that but we’re hoping to do some special flavours that we don’t get to do in the wholesale.
“Because we can’t control how other cafes keep their product, there are some food safety requirements that we have to be cautious of when we do think of the wholesale product.”
These new flavours – which will change regularly – range from a Valentine’s mascarpone and raspberry croissant special, gypsy ham with cheese and mustard croissant, spinach and feta quiche croissant and more.
Christina and Grace want the place to “feel comfortable” and have opted for wooden cabinetry with a white tiled bench top.
“Because the building itself is a heritage building, there are certain things you can’t do with it. But we wanted somewhere that was warm and cosy,” Christina says.
“Modern but not too sterile.”
Fold is located at Shop 4, 124 Port Road, Hindmarsh and will be open from Friday from 8am until 2pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am until 3pm.
After two weeks, the hours will change to Wednesday to Friday from 8am until 2pm, then Saturday and Sunday from 9am until 3pm.
Connect with the business on Instagram for more.