Toasted in a sandwich press, stuffed with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes and heavy on the oregano, it was a staple of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Now cafe counters are more likely to be stocked with muffins, croissants, bagels and pastries for people to pick-up alongside their morning coffee.

But the springy, savoury pizza-like focaccia has started to stage a comeback, and at Market Street Italian joint Ain't Nonna's - it reigns supreme (or, if chef and restaurant owner Matthew Bugeja has his say, margherita).

When they opened at their current location two years ago, Mr Bugeja and wife Cassandra knew they wanted focaccia to become the Ain't Nonna's calling card.

"We definitely knew straight away when we were opening that we wanted to do something a bit more non-traditional for breakfast," Ms Bugeja said.

"Who doesn't love a good almond croissant or muffin, but the market is quite flooded and that's actually quite French leaning, whereas the Italians don't do a lot for breakfast in general, they're not having avo on toast or eggs - they're just having bread and a coffee and maybe a pastry."

Alongsdie their offering of Italian biscuits and cakes, they started making huge sheets of plain and topped focaccia inspired by Italian-American restaurants and Chicago-style pan pizzas

And while some customers were initially hesitant about the '90s food comeback, it has since become a cult-favourite of many in the CBD and sells out quickly each morning.

"I think it was a little challenging in the beginning, the idea that this is all we had," Ms Bugeja said.

"There was a lot of 'Is that it? Is that what you do for breakfast?'. I was like 'What do you mean, that's lovingly handmade? Come on, that's beautiful'.

"I feel like that's exactly what I want to eat for breakfast, and for the people who do eat it and they get into it, then then they'll always come back.

"It's been a bit of a slow burn, but we've found our our family of focaccia lovers now."

There are usually between two and four different focaccias on offer, with the topping changing daily depending on the season and availability of produce.

The bread is baked fresh each day, with enough to service breakfast, make sandwiches at lunch and then be served in slabs alongside antipasti at dinner.

"We're not the first people to make focaccia bread, but we like it to be our calling card," Ms Bugeja said.

"At night, we have plain focaccia that's the centre of everything else. It's the vessel for all our starters."

Many home bread-makers see focaccia as the simpler and more forgiving option to baking a loaf, but up to 48 hours of careful folding and rising goes into each one made at Ain't Nonnas.

"We'll make the dough first thing in the morning, 4.30am, five o'clock and then pretty much all day until the close of business it's resting and then we set a timer for it to be stretched and folded," Mr Bugeja said.

"Then overnight it rests and the baker will come in the next morning and tray up and bake it."

"Because we're here all day, we can definitely allow that time."

As well as the usual daily toppings, the Ain't Nonnas crew has had fun creating an ode to Bunnings sausage sizzle with a sausage and onion focaccia, a modern take on controversial ham and pineapple pizza, and - the ultimate carb-on-carb - a chicken salt and gravy chip roll topping.

"The hot chip one started as a little bit of a joke, because we have a run club that comes in called the Never Lazy Run," Ms Bugeja said.

"They come in on Friday mornings, nice and early, and they used to go to Diggies for the hot chip roll."

"I just baked some shoestring fries and chicken salt on top, and they could choose tomato sauce or gravy. It was very nostalgic and Aussie."