Any foodie who follows Melbourne’s impressive Viennoiserie scene knows the golden rule when visiting a new bakery: get there early.

By the time I arrive at Lumos bakery in McKinnon, in Melbourne’s southeast, peak hour traffic has almost receded so I’m feeling confident I’ll be in time to nab one of the pastries the bakery is becoming known for.

But as I approach the counter, I hear other customers asking for the popular treat, only to be told they’ve sold out. “We don’t usually sell out this early,” apologises owner and chef Carina La Delfa. “On the weekend we do a second bake of them around 10am.” While I was looking forward to trying one of Lumos’s celebrated brownie bombs – La Delfa’s creation of a fudgy brownie baked inside a curved and glossy, ribbed pastry – it’s easy to find other delicious treats to fill the gap.

Lined up in a glass cabinet are hefty twice-baked hazelnut croissants studded with toasted nuts; delicate cinnamon kouign amann where layers of flaky cinnamon pastry are folded into parcels and tossed with sugar, and Viennoiserie staples like pain au chocolat and almond croissants.

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Baked with “single origin” flour (La Delfa uses a supplier who sources wheat grown and milled from single farms), the savoury selection is as tasty, especially the more-ish chilli garlic twist (with house-made fermented chilli paste) and the rich ham and cheese croissant which carries a hint of sweetness from confit garlic.

“They’re simple flavours done well,” La Delfa says. Chunky sandwiches and toasties are available throughout the day and are made using the house sourdough with the fillings switched up regularly.

For La Delfa, who worked as a pastry chef at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and The Press Club, the desire to open Lumos was overwhelming.

“I’ve always put 110 per cent into the jobs I worked and I loved them, but when I realised my neighbourhood needed a bakery it was a real light bulb moment,” she says.

“I knew I was the person to do it because I love bread and pastry.”

As the name suggests, Lumos has illuminated Melbourne’s pastry scene, and its big windows provide passers-by with gorgeous glimpses of crunchy baguettes, golden croissants and plump loaves of bread.

Inside, it’s a sophisticated palette of teal, pink and blonde wood, and as you wait in the queue or sit at the long communal table, you sense this bakery is already a neighbourhood favourite.

And while it’s hard not to feel envious of the locals who live close enough to wander down and snaffle a brownie bomb fresh from the oven (word is they’re on the shelves by 8am), it’s an excellent reason for the rest of us to get out of bed early.

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