From 5.30am every morning, Carl Crosby can be found in the kitchen of Ross Bakery.
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Within a couple of hours its 170-year-old wood-fired oven will have reached the optimum temperature of 700 degrees Fahrenheit.
Another hour later and the sweet aromas of fresh pastries and sourdough bread will begin wafting down the heritage village’s main street.
By 9am the bakery will open its doors to a steady stream of regular and visiting customers.
Some will have just departed the Spirit of Tasmania and be “desperate” for a hot coffee and something to eat, according Mr Crosby.
But the majority of visitors to Ross Bakery will have travelled much further – most from Japan.
About 15 years ago, then owners Chris and Dot Lloyd-Bostock experienced a sudden influx of Japanese visitors.
The reason – a 1989 Japanese animated film called Kiki's Delivery Service.
The coming of age fantasy tells the story of a young witch named Kiki who leaves home for a year and winds up in a small town bakery.
Using her broomstick, Kiki begins her own home delivery business to help earn a living while living in the bakery’s loft.
The film itself is adapted from a 1985 novel of the same name, written by Eiko Kadono.
As Chris and Dot discovered, the bakery’s front counter bares a striking resemblance to the one depicted in the film.
Once they realised the reason for their Japanese visitors, Mr Crosby said it made “good business sense” to capitalise on the popularity.
“Chris and Dot just kept getting asked about it, so one day they just approached a tourist and said – hey what’s the big deal,” he said.
“Once they realised, they wanted to make the most of it for sure.”
The couple soon decided to offer accommodation for visitors, creating a purpose-built room in the bakery’s loft designed to mimic Kiki’s room, as it appears in the film.
Now more than a decade on Ross has become somewhat of a pilgrimage point for eager Kiki fans, all keen to recreate iconic scenes from the film.
Mr Crosby said the reaction from Kiki fans was priceless.
“Sometimes they become overwhelmed, especially when they walk upstairs and see room,” he said.
“They just love it.
“Many will even wear costumes.”
These days the bakery is more than happy to meet the demand, with numerous Kiki-themed memorabilia found throughout the store.
Mr Crosby took over the bakery with his partner Kirtsty Lloyd-Bostock – the daughter of Chris and Dot – about six years ago.
He admitted the “cult following” took him by surprise in the early days.
“It really hit me in the face, how many were actually coming,” he said.
“I knew about it, but I really didn’t know what to expect.
“We know there is a Japanese folklore that says this bakery is the inspiration for the animation.
“Whether or not that is 100 per cent true we can’t really say, but the mystery is just as fascinating for people.”
Built around 1860, the store is the original bakery of Ross and prides itself on using “yesterday’s technology, today”.
Mr Crosby said if people weren’t asking about Kiki, they were asking about the wood-fired oven.
Considered a unique piece of colonial history, the traditional semi-scotch brick oven is capable of baking up to 300 loaves of bread at a time.
It also goes through about tonne of firewood a week.
But despite needing “a bit of extra work”, Mr Crosby said the end results were well worth it.
“I have tried to make bread in traditional ovens, with the exact same recipe and it just doesn’t work,” he said.
“There is something special about this oven.
“It just does the job right.”
The bakery has also become famous for its vanilla slice, which it claims is “the best in the world”.
Mr Crosby said the ritual for most visitors now involved a photo with some Kiki memorabilia, a coffee and a vanilla slice.
“We would like to think we offer the full experience,” he said.
“It is not just mimics, our food is really good as well and we make everything here in store.”