Andy Bowdy and Kepos Street Kitchen’s new cafe-ish collab ticks all the sweet and savoury boxes

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Salma’s Canteen, the new collaboration between cake maestros Saga and savoury wizards Kepos Street Kitchen, is geared towards takeaway, but its customer service verges on hatted restaurant.

Diners are met by foyer concierges in aprons ready to explain menu items, serving combinations and the drinks in the fridge before taking orders.

There is no front counter. Everyone mingles together like it’s an exhibition opening and the magnificent platters of lush salads and come-hither cakes in two glass cases, one with specially lit plinths, are the art.

It’s like the cake showcases at the Royal Easter Show, except here, you point at the wonders inside, staff put it on a plate and you eat it.

Salma’s Canteen, a partnership between Michael Rantissi and Kristy Frawley, who run Kepos Street Kitchen and Kepos Catering, and Andrew Bowden and Maddison Howes, of the now-closed bakery Saga in Enmore, opened in June.

Bowden says all four were keen for new things balanced with more personal time.

“The idea is to grow a business that we’ve worked really hard at at the start and then be able to step back and let it run itself,” he says.

They see Salma’s Canteen, named after Rantissi’s mother, Salma, as less a cafe and more a drop-in spot for sit-in or takeaway lunch, dinner and sweet treats.

“People can get Michael’s amazing fresh salads, proteins, lots of healthy options,” he says. “And then counterbalance that with my sugar.”

Today, Rantissi’s savoury options include cauliflower florets, dusty with dukkah, platters of lolling roasted fennel and leek, burghul wheat with broccolini and edamame, koshari rice, beetroot with goat’s curd and hazelnut, and glistening baked pumpkin flecked with sesame seeds.

Bowden’s cakes, which fans queued for on Saga’s last days, remain eye-widening.

Sticky buns; pear and hazelnut upside-down cakes; passionfruit and fennel palmiers; vanilla slices; passionfruit tarts; sour cherry choux bun with rum custard, maple chantilly and almond praline.

He’s also brought across fennel cake with pearly yoghurt mousse and trembling mandarin jam dollops, which one customer wolfs down before triumphantly buying every apple turnover, each resembling trapped clouds of vanilla chantilly between puff pastry, apple brown butter jam, biscuit crumb and caramelised apple.

“I like old-people pastries,” Bowden says. “My favourite fruit is apricot. I don’t think there’s too many people in the world that would say that.”

People can get Michael’s amazing fresh salads, proteins, lots of healthy options. And then counterbalance that with my sugar.

Andrew Bowden

He’s also working on new, less sweet options, including pumpkin tart.

“It’s a savoury frangipane made with smoked almonds, take a bit of the sugar out, add pumpkin and then it’s got pumpkin and goat’s cheese over the top of it,” he says. “I have a feeling that will be good.”

Savoury plates, which range from $18 to $26, can be salads only, or two or three salads with protein. The proteins today are hot smoked salmon, beef meatballs or chicken schnitzel.

There is no coffee machine (although cold brew is in the fridge) and all food, whether takeaway or eat-in, is served in cardboard boxes with wooden cutlery available.

To a fault, the food is excellent.

Matching richly sauced meatballs with burghul wheat, broccolini and edamame, and sweet and nutty koshari rice, is magnificent. A member of our table snaps his wooden fork in two cutting wedges of roasted fennel but ploughs on, sweeping melty salmon into fat corn-flecked risoni, because it tastes so good.

There’s no need to leave empty-handed. Fridges and shelves are stocked with take-home lasagne, meatballs, whole marinated chicken, salmon, butter chicken, fish balls, spices, dips, pickles, biscuit doughs, curds, drinks and sauces.

“Personally, when I go home, I hate cooking,” Bowden says. “So grab a piece of protein from the fridge, grab salads, sauces, desserts, even apple pie filling. You don’t have to pull together 14 different ingredients to make something from scratch, and life’s a whole lot easier.”