It’s 3am and the suburb of Hadfield is still. Cars retire to the side of the road, illuminated by streetlights. Men sit outside on milk crates, their conversation backlit by the warm glow of an open bakery. They laugh with a coffee and pastry in hand as their breath hangs on the cold night air.

Stepping inside, the warmth of the bakery blankets its visitors. The display fridges are stacked full of the fresh Turkish börek and hot Nutella donuts, which have built almost a cult following. Locals know that this is a place where even in the dead of night, the oven never rests.

Sam’s Bakehouse is one of the only businesses in the entire suburb that is open 24/7, excluding petrol stations. In today’s economic landscape, labour shortages and inflation have plagued many small businesses and forced some to shut down permanently. Yet, owner Samet Aydinli has overcome that by grounding the bakery as a hub for the community to visit at all hours of the day.

The bakery was opened in 2010 by Aydinli, an Australian of Turkish background. His father convinced him to buy the shop front and expand it from a hotdog store into a bakery.

“I didn’t actually want to open Sam’s,” he tells upstart.  “But my dad said I should.”

Aydinli’s father used to run a bakery in Upfield that was also open all day and night.

“I guess that’s where the idea to have Sam’s open 24 hours came from,” he says.

As well as their famous hotdogs, the bakery also incorporates Turkish cuisine with their gözleme and börek, which are now some of their top sellers.

Fatimah El Zahra, a regular at Sam’s Bakehouse, says she loves how she can visit at any time.

“I remember it was around 4am one night and I was craving something sweet, Coles and all of those stores were closed,” she tells upstart.

“You know what wasn’t? Sam’s!”

Every day, Aydinli spends roughly six hours at the bakery. However, it isn’t the only business he runs. He also juggles a crepe shop and an acai store. Compared to the bakery, he says those other businesses are easy to run.

“Baking is demanding, it takes at least six hours of hard work before I can start selling stuff,” he says.

“At my other stores I can be ready within one hour!”

Working long days as a baker is difficult enough, but Aydinli says being open around the clock makes the job even harder. One of his biggest struggles is finding labour.

“Before COVID-19 it would be I have 25 applicants for a job,” he says. “Today I’ll have maybe one applicant.”

Sam’s Bakehouse has been open for over 14 years. When asked about his secret to running a successful bakery, Aydinli simply shrugs.

“The quality is good, and our service is good.”

El Zahra has experienced this firsthand. As a nursing student undertaking placements with erratic hours, she often skips breakfast. When she’s in a rush, Sam’s Bakehouse is her go-to.

“The cafeteria food in hospitals is horrible,” she says.

“I went to get breakfast at Sam’s a few weeks ago at like 6am and one of the workers saw me in my scrubs and threw in an extra croissant for me. You won’t get love like that just anywhere.”

Aydinli says that these acts of kindness build loyalty and add an immeasurable value that large chains struggle to replicate, so does its operating hours.

“The people in the area know Sam’s is always open,” he says.

“We close for one month at the end of the year, and yet the customers keep coming back.”

In the future, Aydinli hopes to hire more staff so he can step back from the long hours in the kitchen.

“I want this bakery to get to where my other businesses are. I want to have a baker here handling that stuff while I handle the other things,” he says.

But he also says that when the time comes, it will be hard to let go of the bakery.

“I feel like I have an emotional attachment to it, it’s in my blood!”

Article: Awab Elbashir is a second-year Bachelor of Media and Communications student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter @awab_elb.

Photo: Supplied by Author