Josh Pickering and Dreyer van Huyssteen combined their respective passions for baking and coffee, to open The Upper Millstone – an artisan bakery and espresso bar located in Hilton, in the KZN midlands.

After a year of renovating the premises themselves, The Upper Millstone opened its doors on the 1st of October 2016, and has become instantly popular with the local community.

Josh and Dreyer are behind the counter in the open kitchen, both are perfectionists always looking to improve their crafts. The bakery’s focus is on artisan breads and pastries, using traditional techniques to gain the best flavour and quality from the simple ingredients. The coffee that we serve is sourced from arguably the best micro-roastery in KZN, and is brought to life by Dreyer using his Wega lever espresso machine, one of just a handful of lever machines being used commercially in the country. His care and dedication shines through in the quality coffee that we serve.

Our hands-on approach has filtered down to many aspects of our bakery, from the relaxed and comfortable interior and custom furniture that was designed and built by Josh and Dreyer, to the guitars hanging on the wall that show a little of the personalities of the owners.

Our baked goods vary on a daily basis, but we always have a variety of great bread, croissants and pastries, and of course fantastic coffee. Favourites include roast onion & potato bread, bacon & mozzarella croissant and almond & salted caramel Danish which combines perfectly with a flat white!