Australian-style bakery and cafe opens Tuesday in downtown Des Moines

Australian-style cafe St. Kilda Cafe & Bakery will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday in the renovated Harbach Building, 300 S.W. Fifth St. near downtown Des Moines.

St. Kilda, named after owner Alexander Hall’s hometown near Melbourne, Australia, will offer breakfast and lunch items, both served all day. The breakfast menu includes homemade pastries, basil Parmesan scones, a brulee banana and vanilla creme anglaise, homemade yogurt, cheddar biscuit sandwich, country smashed peas and eggs, quiche and other items.

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Lunch includes a vegetable sandwich, a roasted pork and smoked ham Cubano, a seared salmon club and a coriander shrimp burger, as well as a handful of salads.

The coffee menu, which features Counter Culture Coffee, offers espresso, macchiato, cortado, latte, chai and others. Cocktails like bloody marys, mimosas and mojitos along with beer and wine to round out the menu.

The cafe is on the ground floor of Harbach Lofts, a former furniture warehouse renovated into apartments at Southwest Fifth Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

Hall came to Des Moines last year with his wife, Whitney Hall, a Des Moines native. The pair met in New York City, where Alexander had started several cafes and Whitney worked for a hair care products company.

The couple decided to move back to Iowa to raise a family. They landed on space in the 100-year-old Harbach building to launch St. Kilda.

The restaurant seats 80 inside and another 25 in an adjacent courtyard, which will open in about a month, Alexander Hall said.

Hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, visit www.stkildadsm.com.