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Good Neighbours: Untold Stories of Sydney | Series Trailer
Sydney’s Inner West has so much. Its proximity to the universities means that it’s always been full of young people filled with creativity and hungry to show what they can do. And its affordable housing (back then, at least) means that it’s always had generations of migrants – first Greek, then Vietnamese, now Thai, Indian and more – bringing their cultures, customs and food to its neighbourhoods.
No surprise then, that it also has the status of being Sydney’s undisputed home of hospitality. It’s a place where many of the best restaurants, cafes and bars in Sydney – and often, in Australia – reside and thrive.
So what is the Inner West? It’s the part of Sydney that has everything. For everyone. Well – almost everything. No area’s perfect, and every neighbourhood’s missing something. But it takes a special kind of operator, at the right time, to figure out exactly what the neighbourhood needs. And how to serve it to them.
How a craving for pancakes woke up a sleepy suburb
The Inner West needed pancakes. Like the kind that Jesse Orleans grew up with in Canada. We’re talking pancakes that look as perfect as they do in your imagination, or in a kid’s cartoon. Towering stacks of fluffy golden discs, drenched in real Canadian maple syrup. That kind.
So when he and friend Chris Theodosi decided to open a venue together, Orleans knew exactly what Sydney needed.
“I grew up eating pancakes every single day,” Orleans says. “You couldn’t get the pancakes that I used to at home, so we were like ‘Let’s just focus on that.’”
“And then everything evolved from there into the concept.”
The question was, which part of Sydney needed them most?
The pair looked at sites throughout town, but none of them felt quite right. Until they came across an unlikely vacancy in an unlikelier place: Haberfield. This sleepy little burb, which is wedged between Burwood and Leichardt but somehow feels a world apart from them, was the ideal spot. It’s dominated by Mediterranean migrants, and their children and grand-children, and has a Southern European feel: fruit shops, old-school espresso bars, Italian bakeries.
Definitely not North American diners. And when Orleans and Theodosi moved into the site that became Happyfield, they were met with skepticism.
“We were a bit nervous at first,” says Theodosi. “More and more people would be walking past and they’d be like ‘What are you opening? Hope it’s Mediterranean.’ And we were like ‘We’re going to be a bit different.’”
And then when we opened the reception we got was crazy. And the businesses that have been here 50 years, they were like, they’d never seen Haberfield like that ever. It was just crazy.”
Chris Theodosi → co-owner, Happyfield
Five years on, Happyfield serves 3000 customers a week from all over Sydney – a number that’s nearly half the population of Haberfield. They’ve brought more than pancakes to the neighbourhood. They’ve brought people. People that have breathed life back into the area.
“Now it’s buzzing,” Theodosi says. “It’s more lively, it’s more booming.”
“More people are coming to the community.”
How caffeinated connection provided Burwood with a third place
Burwood needed specialty coffee. Like the city had. Or even the Inner West suburbs that were more “inner” than Burwood.
“It’s hard to find a good coffee in the suburbs,” says Edwin Luo, co-owner of Pillar Brewers. “We wanted to plant our feet in a place that wasn’t super specialty coffee heavy, but still had a vibrant culture.”
It’s what we felt like the neighbourhood needed.”
Edwin Luo → co-owner, Pillar Brewers
Burwood is one of the most dynamic suburbs in all of Sydney, best known for its enormous Chinese population – and all the excellent restaurants that inevitably come with that. But it had fewer compelling daytime options. Even as recently as 2022, when Pillar opened.
“Burwood’s food has a lot to give, but coffee’s never really been a huge thing.”
And it continued to not be a huge thing, well after Pillar opened.
“It was difficult to get people through our doors, because a lot of people didn’t even know this existed” says Luo. “But over time we had regulars pop in, and a lot of them still come today.”
According to Luo, those locals didn’t become regulars because of the excellent micro-roasted single origins on offer. It was just a means to an end.
“Coffee at the end of the day is just a vehicle, our language – it has this way of connecting people in the most incredible ways,” he says.
“We wanted to create a space where people can feel relaxed and calm and leave their troubles at the door. This consistent third space where you can always come, be welcome, and talk to the same person.”
The Pillar team thought Burwood needed coffee. But what it really needed was somewhere for the neighbourhood to gather.
We’re just your local coffee shop, nothing too special. But the people that we’re surrounded with, that are in here and out there, make this place special.”
Edwin Luo → co-owner, Pillar Brewers
How a serious cocktail bar that didn’t itself too seriously changed King Street
Newtown needed cocktails. Or it did 12 years ago. Now it’s arguably the best place in Sydney for one. We can give Pasan Wijesena a lot of the credit for that.
“I knew I wanted this,” he says. “Maybe other people might as well.”
“So it was almost purely selfish reasons why I opened here, I wanted something new where I live.”
That’s why the bartender decided to take a punt on opening Earl’s Juke Joint – a speakeasy behind a former butcher shop, inspired by New Orleans and all the music it’s responsible for.
Sometimes selfishness can be selfless then. Because although King Street is one of Sydney’s most popular nightlife districts in Sydney, teeming with pub-crawlers, uni students, tourists – and of course – locals, back then it had seen better days.
“King Street was a bit sketchy, there wasn’t much going on” says Wijesena. “It kind of needed some new blood.”
And it got it. After Earl’s opened, and the awards and customers came rolling in, the complexion of the area’s bar scene began to change. More and more bars began to open. So did restaurants. Wijesena opened in the neighbourhood more too. Earl’s was soon joined by Jacoby’s, then the Trocadero and the Magpie.
It’s nice to the be the only venue in the area anymore – and a rising tide lifts all ships.”
Pasan Wijesena → owner, Earl's Juke Joint
Before long, King Street – and the broader neighbourhood – was a bona fide hospitality hub.
“I’m proud to say we were probably one of the first to put Newtown on the map,” Wijesena says. “Certainly from a cocktail point of view.”
But Wijesena isn’t proudest of the acclaim, esteem, or even the cocktails. This Newtown local is most excited – still, 12 years on – about giving the neighbourhood the bar he always knew it deserved.
“It’s a place for people to connect, to wind down – or wind up in certain cases,” he says. “Bars are about people.”
And so is the Inner West.
Want to know more about how the Inner West became – and continues to be – the heart of Sydney’s hospitality? Watch the Inner West episode of our Good Neighbours series ->
