Shelly Bay Baker on Karori Road is the Karori home of Real. Good. Bread. — the bakery Sam Forbes founded in 2017. A chef from the age of 15, Sam started out in a small bakery in Shelly Bay, outgrew it, and designed and built a new base at 133A Park Road in Miramar, complete with a bakery, an in-house flour mill and a small retail shop. The Shelly Bay Baker whānau now includes cafés and bread stores at Park Road, Leeds Street, Oriental Parade and here on Karori Road.
Everything begins with flour. The team mills organic New Zealand whole grains in-house into fresh stoneground flour, which goes straight into the dough — a slower, fussier process that gives the bread its terrific flavour and aroma. Natural levains (ferments) do the rising, keeping the ingredient list short and the bread genuinely real. The daily range covers sourdough breads, bagels and baguettes, alongside pastries, sweet treats, fresh sandwiches and coffee.
The Karori Road store doubles as a café and bread shop: pick up a loaf or sourdough bagels, grab a coffee — poured by a barista team that placed second at the Alternative Dairy Co Championship — and take home bags of the bakery's own stoneground rye, white, spelt or wholemeal flour. If you'd rather bake at home, the shop sells sourdough starter kits too, with a free starter guide on the website, and the online store covers click & collect and delivery across New Zealand.
Real. Good. Bread. It's the entire philosophy of Shelly Bay Baker compressed into three words, and it has driven the bakery since Sam Forbes founded it in 2017. A chef from the age of 15, Sam is on a quest to produce the tastiest, healthiest bread on the planet — and going by the following the bakery has built, he seems to be winning. He started Shelly Bay Baker in a small bakery in Shelly Bay, quickly outgrew it, and designed and built a new home for the business at 133A Park Road in Miramar — a facility housing the bakery, a flour mill and a small retail shop. From there the operation has grown into a small family of cafés and bread stores around Wellington: Park Road, Leeds Street, Oriental Parade, and Shelly Bay Baker on Karori Road.
Sam believes in the power of real bread and acknowledges his role in helping people eat real foods. Everything the bakery makes — its sourdough breads, bagels, baguettes and more — relies on natural ingredients and natural levains, the living ferments that give sourdough its character without shortcuts.
At the heart of Shelly Bay Baker is flour: fresh, organic and stoneground. The team sources organic New Zealand whole grains and mills them in-house, so the flour goes almost directly from the millstones into the dough. The process adds time and effort, but the results are easy to taste — bread with terrific flavour and aroma. Capital Millers partner with the bakery and carry its flour around New Zealand, and bags of it sit alongside the loaves in the bakery shop for home bakers.
The Karori Road café and bread store carries the daily bake: a rotating range of organic sourdough breads, sourdough bagels and baguettes, plus pastries and sweet treats. Coffee is poured all day by a barista team with real credentials — Shelly Bay Baker's crew finished second at the Alternative Dairy Co Championship, a team event spanning latte art, specialty drinks and alt-milk tasting. Fresh sandwiches turn a quick bread run into a proper lunch stop, and the bagels can also come to you through the online shop.
At Easter, plan around the handmade hot cross buns: crafted with organic, freshly milled local flour, citrus peel, raisins, sultanas and the bakery's own spice mix, finished with a sticky glaze, and available at all the cafés and online for home delivery until Easter Monday.
If you haven't had a proper sourdough before, the bakery's own advice is that it's something you have to taste to believe — and the team is constantly experimenting, learning and testing new ideas, so the shelves never quite stand still.
Shelly Bay Baker is generous with its know-how. The shop stocks organic rye, white, spelt and wholemeal stoneground flours, breadcrumbs and sourdough starter kits, and the website offers a free sourdough starter guide for anyone having a go at home. The online store handles click & collect and delivery, gift vouchers cover the bread lovers on your list, and the Field to table newsletter shares market news, sourdough recipes, storage tips, farmer updates and nutritional information.
For Karori, that adds up to something rare on a suburban street: a genuine milling-bakery café where the grain is stoneground in-house, the ferments are natural and the bread is worth arriving early for. Start your visit the way the signage suggests — with some Real. Good. Bread.