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New Zealander Gareth Hughes started Down Under Bakery in 2003 after contemplating New York’s culinary landscape while devouring a hand-held pocket food back home. “The meat pie is as essential to Kiwis as pizza is to New Yorkers,” says Hughes, who bakes twelve variations monthly from a library of three dozen recipes. Wrapped in a flaky crust that’s flavored in part by a lard-margarine shortening imported from the owner’s homeland, the pies come filled with savory mixtures like chunky steak (with or without cheese), mushrooms and onions, and old-school steak and kidney. Shepherd’s pie adds a mashed potato top to the standard steak order. Vegetarian versions, like spinach and ricotta and the best-selling vegetable curry, are wrapped in a crust that’s animal product-free. A Maori tattoo-like mural furthers the Down Under theme, as do the flat whites—a creamy variation on the cappuccino—and the jam-filled sponge cakes called Lamingtons. — K. Emily Bond

DUB both caters events and sells select items to bars and coffee shops.

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