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Good Neighbours: Untold Stories of Sydney | Series Trailer
Unlike regions with clear, compass-based boundaries like the Inner West or the Northern Beaches, Inner Sydney is a bit harder to define. That’s because each of the neighbourhoods surrounding the city-centre has its own distinct energy and character. And each of those areas has its own unique cast of locals, workers, visitors and businesses.
But despite all their differences, Inner Sydney’s neighbourhoods share the same spirit. It’s an attitude of openness and potential. The feeling that anything, wherever you are or wherever you’re from, is possible. If you’re willing to work hard enough and dream big enough.
This patchwork of neighbourhoods that separate the CBD from Sydney’s sprawling suburbia may be hard to define – but that incompleteness is also an opportunity. It’s a chance for the right business – and people – to come along and define it for themselves. The story of Inner Sydney is still being written. These are some of the people writing it.
A slice (or two) of the Middle East, in the heart of the inner east
Myra Karakelle and her husband loved everything about living in Surry Hills. They loved the terrace houses running up and down its leafy streets. They loved its closeness to everything. And its abundance of restaurants, bars and cafes – some of the best and most beloved in all of Sydney. Most of all though, they loved its diversity.
“I love Surry Hills because it’s not one particular profile,” says Karakelle. “It’s an assortment of artists, young backpackers travelling, young professionals and retired ones.”
It’s such an eclectic place. There’s so much flavour – this little pocket of our city is a fusion pot for hospitality.”
Myra Karakelle → owner, MLK Deli
Those vastly different demographics translate over to the food scene. Whether its dumplings or daal, pierogis or pub food, Surry Hills is filled with places for everybody and their various communities to congregate and break bread.
Almost everybody. For Karakelle, who’s of Uzbek and Afghan heritage, and her Turkish husband, that variety on offer for nearly everyone only highlighted how underserved the Middle Eastern and Central Asian community was.
“There’s a mosque on Commonwealth Street, and that’s a place that not a lot of people know about, but it’s full of the Muslims who work here and who live here and who travel here,” Karakelle says.
So in 2024, Karakelle decided to cater for them, by creating MLK Deli: a fully halal sandwich shop, starring her culture’s cuisines.
“I believed that what I envisioned wasn’t available.”
It wasn’t, and the neighbourhood responded to it. Soon enough Muslims living and working throughout Surry Hills were coming to MLK to try its halal cold-cut meats – and the sandwiches that housed them. And then they started coming from across town too. The rest of Surry Hills soon followed, thrilled to try its Afghan lamb meatball subs and its Uzbek chicken sandwiches. Now, MLK is a place – and has something – for everyone.
“There’s a community here that maybe we don’t see all the time, but it’s very present,” says Karakelle. “So this is a place for them that’s safe to eat in, but also not exclusive.”
Karakelle and her husband loved how welcoming and diverse their home was. Now they’re making Surry Hills’s best qualities shine even brighter.
When old-school Naples meets Potts Point cool
A couple of neighbourhoods over, in Potts Point, another deli opened last year. But instead of serving one of Sydney’s most under-catered communities, Salumerie has faced the opposite challenge. In a city with a prominent Italian diaspora, filled with Italian bars, restaurants and cafés, Salumerie wanted to serve Italian.
But its owner Donato Salomone still saw an opening. Something the city – and his neighbourhood, Potts Point – didn’t have just yet.
“I wanted to open an old-school deli, reinvented in a cool way,” Salomone says. “Always in Italy, you wake up in the morning and you get fresh-cut deli meat – I couldn’t find that in Australia.”
So the Naples-born Salomone decided to rectify that. And he picked Potts Point. It’s one of Inner Sydney’s most culturally and economically diverse suburbs. A place where everyone from all walks of life rub shoulders together every day.
Nowhere more so than Llankelly place – the hospitality heart of the area. The pedestrian strip where people, places – and more than a few friendly dogs – all intermingle reminded Salomone of Naples; of home.
It was the perfect place for Salumerie.
“There’s a really amazing openness about Potts Point,” Salomone says. “This part of Sydney, everyone’s very accepting. The community is fantastic.”
And as Salomone has gained the neighbourhood’s trust, they’ve returned the favour.
People are loyal to you – and that’s what I like. I created so many friends here, just from customers coming in.”
Donato Salomone → owner, Salumerie
It turns out the neighbourhood – and Sydney – had room for more Italian hospitality in its heart. Now, there are four Salumeries – and counting – around town. But Salomone will always be grateful to Potts Point and its people for getting his dream off the ground.
“You love all your kids the same, but for me, Potts Point, I love more than anything else.”
From Thailand to Chippendale – with a few markets in between
The team behind MLK Deli love Surry Hills because it’s their home. Donato Salomone loves Potts Point because it reminds him of home. That’s not why Yeen Veerasenee, owner of Khanom House, loves Chippendale.
He loves Chippendale because it provided him with the space to finally give his business a home.
Veerasenee, a self-taught baker, spent years selling cakes, pastries and all things sweet at markets around Sydney. Marketgoers quickly developed a taste for his unique treats, which melded French technique and Australian ingredients with flavour profiles and inspiration from his native Thailand.
But eventually his growth hit a ceiling. He needed a bigger kitchen to meet demand. He needed a shopfront.
Customers at the market would ask, where’s your shop? I knew the home kitchen wasn’t working anymore.”
Yeen Veerasenee → owner, Khanom House
“So I started looking, and then I found this perfect spot.”
It was in Chippendale; a small neighbourhood that uni students and workers usually transit through. A place that’s better known for its apartments and offices than its hospitality. That’s starting to change.
“We have a lot of neighbours down the road, a few cafes,” says Veerasenee. “There’s a lot of young creatives – this community surrounding us is lovely.”
And Khanom House is more than just a part of the community, it’s actively building it; regularly drawing in crowds. They come for Veerasenee’s honey layer cakes and pandan custard doughnuts. Then they wander around and discover the rest that Chippendale has to offer.
Khanom House was provided with a neighbourhood to call home, and now it’s returning the favour. You don’t always choose your neighbourhood, sometimes it chooses you.
