Gramercy is a Wellington bakery on Adelaide Road in Brooklyn, devoted to doing two things exceptionally well: sourdough bread and croissants. It opens from 7:30am, Tuesday through Saturday, and offers click and collect so regulars can have their loaf or pastry order waiting for them.
The bread lineup is short and confident. The Campagne — the house loaf — is a country-style sourdough of wheat flour, rye flour, water and salt, made to be eaten fresh and toasted through the rest of the week. Alongside it sit the Seed loaf, studded with six kinds of seeds and described as 'a meal in itself'; a creamy oat porridge sourdough; and a signature hand-crafted baguette made with a touch of honey.
Croissants are the other calling card. The classic butter croissant, made from 100% NZ milled wheat and butter, is the bakery's top-selling product bar none, and it anchors a range that runs from pain au chocolat to rum-syrup-soaked almond croissants and savoury options like ham and Gruyere or pickled jalapeño and cheddar.
On Adelaide Road in Brooklyn, Wellington, Gramercy runs a tight, confident operation: a bakery that does sourdough and croissants — and very little else. That focus is deliberate. Rather than a broad café menu, the team behind Baker Gramercy has built its name on naturally crafted loaves and properly laminated pastry, sold from early morning Tuesday through Saturday, with click and collect available for anyone who wants their order waiting for them.
The bakery opens from 7:30am and keeps Sundays and Mondays closed — the classic rhythm of a working bread bakery, where the week is shaped around the bakes. If you're planning a visit, any day from Tuesday to Saturday works, and arriving early is never a bad idea when the bestsellers are pastries.
Gramercy's sourdough range is small by design. The Campagne is the house loaf: a country-style sourdough made with nothing more than wheat flour, rye flour, water and salt. The bakery's own advice for enjoying it is nicely practical — eat it fresh, then toast the rest through the week.
The Seed loaf is the heartier sibling, a wholesome sourdough studded with sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, linseed and caraway. Gramercy describes it as "a meal in itself," which is about right: it's the kind of bread that carries a slice of butter or cheese and asks for nothing else.
The Oat loaf takes a different route, built on an oat porridge worked through the dough with wheat flour, water and salt. The result is a crumb the bakery calls "super creamy, super special" — a softer, rounder eating loaf. And for the times only a long loaf will do, there's the baguette: a signature, hand-crafted number made with wheat flour, water, honey, yeast and salt.
If the sourdough is the backbone, the croissants are the crowd-puller. The plain butter croissant is Gramercy's top-selling product bar none — a classic layered pastry made from 100% NZ milled wheat and butter. The pain au chocolat follows the same laminated logic, wrapped around Valhrona chocolate and described by the bakery as "the complete breakfast."
Then come the richer, dressed-up versions. The almond croissant is soaked in rum syrup and filled with frangipane and almonds — "decadent & delicious," per the product notes — while the chocolate almond croissant adds chocolate to the frangipane and a crown of almonds on top.
Savoury cravings are covered too. The ham and Gruyere croissant pairs honey-cured smoked ham with Swiss Gruyere inside that same buttery pastry — "peak bliss," in the bakery's words — and the jalapeño cheddar croissant brings pickled jalapeños and cheddar for anyone who likes a little heat with the morning bake.
Gramercy sits at 465 Adelaide Road in Brooklyn. Doors open at 7:30am, Tuesday to Saturday, with Sundays and Mondays off. If you want to be sure of your loaf or a box of croissants, click and collect is available through the bakery's website — order ahead, then swing by and pick up.
The bakery also keeps an active presence on Instagram under the handle @bakergramercy, cheekily labelled "Instagramercy" on its site, where the day's bakes make regular appearances — a handy way to see what's coming out of the oven before you go.
What kind of visit should you expect? This is a bakery in the truest sense: come in, choose your bread and pastries, and take them away to enjoy. A Campagne and a butter croissant make an obvious pairing for a weekend morning; a Seed loaf bought on Tuesday will still be earning its keep as toast come the weekend. However you approach it, the menu's focus is the point — a small number of things, made with care, five days a week.