When restaurants across NSW closed for dine-in meals on Monday 23 March, some businesses quickly pivoted to take-away to stay viable and support their communities, including the staff and suppliers relying on them. Others took a few weeks to consider their approach and have now morphed into grocers, bakers and suppliers of all the Ingredients we need to keep eating just as well at home as we did in their fine restaurants. Here are five of my favourites. Please do everything you can to support small local businesses fighting to stay alive.
Monopole Potts Point
www.monopolesydney.com.au
Each weekend, one of my favourite wine bars becomes one of my favourite grocery stores. There’s beautiful seasonal produce as well as Brent Savage’s famous liquorice bread, freshly baked sourdough and other treats. Forget the toilet paper, this is also your chance to stockpile from Nick Hildebrandt’s cellar!
Firedoor Surry Hills
www.firedoor.com.au
Lennox Hastie celebrated his restaurant’s 5th birthday by opening Fireshop, an online marketplace featuring great produce (including dry-aged steaks), housemade sauces, smoked butter and burrata, and ‘almost-ready’ dishes, for collection Friday afternoons. You can even buy cherry, apple and other woods to fuel your barbie!
Sixpenny Stanmore
www.sixpenny.com.au
Dan Puskas has morphed his inner west fine diner into a weekend general store, with freshly baked goods, a great pancake mix, produce from his fave suppliers and his sommelier’s 6-packs, including some serious Burgundy. There’s take away Thursday to Saturday evenings too. Pre-orders and walk-ins.
Café Paci Newtown
www.cafepaci.com.au
Pasi Petanen’s pop-up bakery is just as popular as his recently opened restaurant. Join the daily queues for treats from candy pink Alexander torte and Berliner donuts to seriously delicious cured salmon on rye with boiled eggs, cucumber & dill and rich, dark brown potato & molasses bread.
SSS@Home Pyrmont
Sydney Seafood School has hosted most of Sydney’s best chefs over the years. Now some of them, and the School’s dedicated food team, inspire Friday night dinners across the city with a virtual cooking class including all Ingredients, detailed recipe and step-by-step video delivered or collected from SFM or select Harris Farm stores.
Check out the innovative takeaway offerings from some of Sydney’s finest restaurants. The situation (and therefore Sydney restaurants’ coronavirus response) is still changing weekly; all or some of these restaurants may be closed soon without your support. Please support small, local, independent businesses as much as you can. Now more than ever – use it or lose it!! #KeepCalmAndCarryOnEatingWell
