This week, we’re adding Tarts Anon to The Hot List, the definitive guide to Melbourne’s most essential food and drink experiences.

In a way, Tarts Anon losing its Cremorne home was a very Tarts Anon thing to happen.

The brand was born in the depths of 2020’s Covid lockdowns, towards the end of a year which started with owner Gareth Whitton – then head pastry chef at Dinner by Heston – finding himself out of work when Crown cancelled the restaurant’s lease. Whitton, spurred on by wife and business partner Catherine Way, proceeded to bounce back with a job at Lune and the runaway success of Tarts Anon – a side hustle which quickly became a main hustle. And he found time to win the first season of Dessert Masters and write a cookbook, too.

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“It’s not a great time to be taking risks like this and, in our previous tenancy, we were on a pretty good wicket,” Whitton says. “But there were always plans to grow into a bigger space, and this place is pretty fantastic in terms of what the next chapter looks like for us.”

That next chapter looks like a larger venue with more parking, seating and production space than ever. The new location’s bigger footprint – coupled with its glass front – means that you can see inside the open kitchen and watch the tarts being made in real time. Plus, it’s an affectionate nod to Whitton’s time working inside Lune’s notorious “cube”.

“It’s a bit of a shout-out to the Lune team because we’ve always been a bit inspired by what they do,” Whitton says. “And it will hopefully provide a bit of theatre and interest to passers-by.”

Another thing that Whitton has imported from his time at Lune is croissant pastry. Laminated dough has slowly been making its way onto the menu at Tarts Anon’s other locations, but Whitton’s doubling down here.

“I fell in love with viennoiseries during my time at Lune, and now we’re going to upskill everyone and really launch into a viennoiserie program here,” he says.

That doesn’t mean you’ll be seeing a croissant at Tarts Anon any time soon – but the dough is being adapted to conform to the tart format. A croissant tart on the menu right now is using unproved croissant dough for its base.

“If it looks like a tart and tastes like a tart, then it’s a tart – right? We’re not straying away from our brand, but we’re definitely looking at new ways to give other people what they’re looking for,” says Whitton. “In the new space, I really wanted to make a point of evolving the brand instead of just sticking with the format that’s worked really well for us.”

So in addition to classic tarts by the slice, like lemon, chocolate and caramel, and smoked pecan and butterscotch, keep an eye out for site-exclusive new items geared towards individual serves. And the first new Richmond exclusive is a pistachio St Honoré cake baked inside a croissant pastry shell, topped with profiteroles. And Whitton’s excited about it.

“It’s crispy, it’s flaky, it’s crunchy, it’s got the golden caramel on top of these profiteroles filled with this beautiful pistachio custard – it’s just sick.”

10/658 Church Street, Richmond

Mon to Fri 8am–2.30pm
Sat & Sun 9am–3.30pm

The Hot List is proudly sponsored by Square.