{"id":568470,"date":"2026-08-14T04:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568470\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T04:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T04:32:14","slug":"whangarei-cbd-european-bakery-all-you-knead-rises-to-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568470\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei CBD: European bakery All You Knead rises to popularity"},"content":{"rendered":"

They chose the Vine St store because it was around the corner from the Water St Whang\u0101rei Farmers\u2019 Markets on Saturdays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stella said the first day made the pair realise they would need to expand to keep up with demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe opened the shutters and the queue was past the traffic lights and around the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided we would need some help, so we called up friends to give us a hand, and it grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within weeks, All You Knead had its first employee.<\/p>\n

\"ChefsChefs Aurelio Stella (left) and Mirco Seifert started All You Knead on Vine St because they love baking European-style bread, including the large crusty white loaf (left) and organic rye. Photo \/ Denise Piper<\/p>\n

After their first year, they moved the bakery to a commercial kitchen in The Strand Shopping Centre, walking freshly baked goods across the road to the Vine St shop.<\/p>\n

This year, they expanded into a second commercial kitchen in The Strand, allowing them to expand their range of baked goods into croissants and other pastries.<\/p>\n

Stella said the bakery\u2019s growth was about customer demand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we just tried to listen to what people wanted, and it gave us the direction of what we were offering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The location enabled access<\/a> for regulars such as market-goers, CBD workers and inner-city dwellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many amazing locals that turned up weekly, or sometimes daily, and supported us: it\u2019s been amazing,\u201d Stella said.<\/p>\n

\"MircoMirco Seifert says All You Knead has worked around its tiny Vine St shop by opening kitchens in The Strand across the road. Photo \/ Denise Piper<\/p>\n

Quality baking remained the heart of the business, with each loaf having a long fermentation time.<\/p>\n

Stella also credited All You Knead\u2019s eight employees for helping drive the business forward.<\/p>\n

This included Pinja M\u00e4kip\u00e4\u00e4, who recently won the Te Tai Tokerau Regional Barista Open<\/a> and will represent Northland at the national barista champs in September.<\/p>\n

All You Knead continues to grow and is looking for a second shop outside the CBD.<\/p>\n

The lack of parking<\/a> was customers\u2019 biggest gripe about the Vine St store, especially those just popping in to grab a loaf, Seifert said.<\/p>\n

He believed free parking, even for 30 minutes<\/a>, would help many small businesses in the area.<\/p>\n

\"AurelioAurelio Stella (left) and Mirco Seifert are pleased with their latest kitchen expansion in The Strand, which allows them to make croissant and other pastries. Photo \/ Denise Piper<\/p>\n

Stella said it would be nice to see more food places in the inner city, with cheaper leases encouraging small businesses to fill empty shops.<\/p>\n

Seifert said the buildings in their area of town, including upper Vine, Bank and Water streets, were looking tired and needed renovation.<\/p>\n

But he admitted the area had changed for the better over the past three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started, we thought, \u2018Who\u2019s going to come here?\u2019 Some people even tried to talk us out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The area was now a foodie destination, with nearby businesses including South African flame-grilled eatery Braaihut, Little Bamboo Asian Eatery, bakery-turned-pizzeria Handsome Frog, produce and bakery Taimahi Trust<\/a> and new Bank St cafe Leito Gelato.<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They chose the Vine St store because it was around the corner from the Water St Whang\u0101rei Farmers\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5003,1443,432,13038,5263,534,32164,276836,138,10166,31426,9084,26670,6446,4975,71,1345,15902,279922,26477,25140,5978,111,139,7977,69,1642,9769,30205,384,33220,1562,60781,39157,6448,6492,10042,13843,1963,96080,1243,544,653,666,3502,301,684,1961,61,6493,1869,57767,102,19135,197],"class_list":["post-568470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-activity","tag-about","tag-action","tag-advocate","tag-all","tag-amid","tag-bakery","tag-bigbox","tag-business","tag-businesses","tag-cbd","tag-challenges","tag-denise","tag-european","tag-free","tag-from","tag-home","tag-innercity","tag-knead","tag-leaders","tag-lights","tag-might","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northern","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-owners","tag-parking","tag-people","tag-piper","tag-plenty","tag-popularity","tag-reasons","tag-reporter","tag-retailers","tag-rises","tag-secrets","tag-series","tag-shining","tag-shopping","tag-some","tag-stores","tag-struggling","tag-success","tag-talks","tag-there","tag-this","tag-to","tag-venues","tag-whangrei","tag-whangreis","tag-with","tag-working","tag-you"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}