The family-run bar our critic would be stoked to have on his own street

The Age

03-07-2025

If you're an inner-west local who's into hummus, falafel and house-made sausages, you likely already know Emma's intimately. The tight-packed space is invariably pumping with at least three generations of regulars, thanks to competitive prices, BYO and minimum-fuss, flavour-charged food. I once had a girlfriend who lived in Stanmore and, more or less, lived off Emma's lamb and pine nut-filled lady fingers for six months.
Mixed Business is a 'prequel', not just because it celebrates George and Emma's original shop: the family also used to live here. The bathroom – handsomely decorated with caramel tiles and an Arabic For Your Eyes Only poster that I dearly need for my own Roger Moore collection – was Anthony's childhood bedroom. His own kids – George, 22, and Charlie, 20 – now help run the bar.
It's more spacious than Emma's below, but still feels homely, thanks to dozens of Sofy family photos and frames straight from the 1988 Copperart Christmas catalogue. There's wood panelling, vinyl chairs and custom-made ashtrays that function as bowls for mixed nuts. Bartender Jimmy Pollestad has put together an approachable drinks list of classics, highballs and house cocktails, such as an amaretto and arak spritz.
Pop in for a martini and a plate of olives and cucumber, or wrangle dinner out of a short menu doing its own Aussie suburban thing and separate to the carte downstairs. A fried chicken sandwich is made on soft, good-on-ya-mum white bread and spread thick with toum, annually voted the world's most garlicky garlic sauce for the past two centuries. Puffy, crunchy, salt-and-vinegar potato scallops are nostalgia made manifest; fries come with a deeply delicious curry gravy you'll feel inclined to dip your sandwich into, too.