Sydney overtaking Melbourne as the food hub

For years, Melbourne was promoting itself as Australia’s food capital.

But all of that is changing. Sydney is taking over.

True, Melbourne still boasts destinations such as Lygon Street or its famed laneways.

But bad development decisions have seen it completely miss the opportunity to turn some of its iconic buildings into food precincts.

One example is the the Hawthorn Tram Depot built in 1916.

It is now home to residential apartments and a museum for old trams on display.

Melbourne’s Docklands, which once promised a new neighbourhood to rival Sydney’s ‘dining by the water’ with the iconic Melbourne Eye towering over the inner city neighbourhood, has now become a ghost town of apartments no one wants to visit.

This has seen even the New York Times questioning the legitimacy of Melbourne’s claims to be Australia’s food destination.

It’s all very different in Sydney which is now focusing on growing interesting food destinations.

And unlike Melbourne, it is using some fantastic old buildings to do that.

One example is the old Rozelle Tramway Depot built in 1904, located in the inner west suburb of Forest Lodge.

Developers Mirvac have refurbished entire tram depot.

The old depot now houses more than 17 eateries. It offers an on-sight butchery and specialty coffee roaster and individually curated food shops.

Visitors will also find Sydney’s innovative food entrepreneurs there with Butcher And The Farmer for the beer and meat lovers.

They can also pop into Flour Eggs Water, the sister restaurant to popular Italian restaurant, A Tavola and the destination for fresh handmade pasta.

For those wanting Spanish food and cocktails, there’s Bodega 1904 and Garcon.

Then there’s the Cannery Roseberry in Sydney’s inner south, created out of the 11,000 square metre, 100-year-old Rosella soup cannery.

It has Archie Rose, Sydney’s first distillery in more than 150 years while offering wood fired pizzas at Da Mario, a New York style restaurant Stanton & C and Vietnamese food at Banh Xeo. .

It even has a cooking school.

Leon Getler 29th May 2018.