Neighbourhood shops: Iron St, North Parramatta

Traders have more than a century of experience between them at a western Sydney shopping centre. There’s even a shop that’s made Aussie history. Enjoy the sixth instalment of Corner Store Heroes.

Just before you reach picturesque Lake Parramatta, you’ll come across a set of shops at Iron St that have served the community for decades, thanks to its many loyal traders.

The North Parramatta shopping strip is home to 10 businesses including the cherished Romano’s Pizzeria and Daei Persian Fast Food, which boasts of being Australia’s first Persian fast food eatery.

Previously owned by Hossain Naseri, Behzad and Parisa Eghtedari bought the shop (formerly Aria Persian Food) just two months ago, with their predecessor concentrating on his Merrylands eatery.

Eghtedari reminds us that while more formal fare from his homeland, such as rice and lamb, grace many Persian restaurants in Sydney, the North Parramatta eatery was the first to offer a takeaway option in Australia.

“All customers come in — Aussie people, Asian people all come here,’’ he said.

“They come from Penrith, from Castle Hill.’’

A cross section of customers stream through the eatery during our visit, some pausing to eat hot dogs and falafel rolls while sheep brains and tongue rolls with tomatoes await the more adventurous.

Behzad Eghtedari of Daei Persian Fast Food at Iron St, North Parramatta.

When 71-year-old Bobbie Schuitemaker was growing up in Iron St, Middle Eastern food was not part of the Aussie palate but fish and chips were and the shop, Lakeside Seafood still stands, albeit with different owners.

However, management has not changed at the The Lakes Laundry Dry Cleaners, where Schuitemaker’s boss, Jeff Gruber, has been at the helm for 40 years, washing, drying and pressing laundry for time-starved locals.

“It’s extremely busy,’’ Schuitemaker said.

“It’s word of mouth. They reckon we give good service. Even though there’s a laundromat up the road they like it here because they don’t have to stand around and wash and fold it themselves.’’

Schuitemaker grew up with connections to North Parramatta and cricket royalty, who very well could have been a regular at the shops.

“Richie Benaud’s father was my schoolteacher (at North Parramatta Public School),’’ she recalled.

Now lined with unit blocks alongside the suburb’s elegant heritage cottages, Schuitemaker remembers when the jail on O’Connell St had inmates and orchards thrived in the suburb.

The Lakes Laundry and Dry Cleaners employee Bobbie Schuitemaker is part of the furniture on Iron St.

Some fruit trees remained after her unit block sprouted up.

Her family would swap passionfruit for mulberries, apples and oranges shared by other neighbours.

“The locals are all the same. I grew up in the housing commission up the top and some of the people still live up there,’’ she said.

Now the camaraderie lives on at the shops.

“Everybody helps each other out,’’ she said.

“It’s much quieter and everyone’s more friendly (than a big shopping centre).’’

North Parramatta Supermarket co-owners Tony Wu and his wife Sarah Han, and Ming Zeng, agree.

Wu started working there six months ago after returning from China where Covid forced him to stay for two years.

He didn’t have a job but was adamant he didn’t want to return to work as a radiation therapist in a Canberra hospital.

“I had enough,’’ he said.

“I think it’s easier and not much pressure like when you’re facing patients.’’

Tony Wu enjoys his new job at the supermarket much more than working at a hospital.

The supermarket is more like a mini mart, but with the retro treats that were part of Aussie trolleys from yesteryear, such as the Golden Rough chocolates stocked below the counter.

It’s no frills but the shop has been a mainstay in Iron St for about 30 years.

“It’s a friendly neighbourhood compared to other places,’’ Zeng said.

When he worked elsewhere in Sydney’s west, he said the people “were rubbish” (mainly because of the shop’s location near a pub).

“But here, I haven’t had any people like that.’’

Sam Roumanos is one of the oldest members of the Iron St club, much to his customers’ delight at Romano’s Pizzeria.

After whipping up pizzas on the north shore, eastern suburbs and southwest Sydney since the 1970s, it was the North Parramatta shop where he has kneaded the dough the longest, serving 22 years.

When Sam migrated from Lebanon in 1974, he worked at top hotels and picked up some cooking tips.

“When I first came here, I worked in hotels and I learned cooking through chefs there and decided to go out on my own in business,’’ he said.

Sam and Richard Roumanos of Romano’s Pizzeria keep locals fed and happy.

His move to Parramatta suited his desire for a shorter commute from the Baulkham Hills family home and now the 67 year old has handed the reins to his son Richard, 32, who is serving the next generation of customers the “homely, old-style” pizzas.

“The locals are all very interesting and nice, and we have good conversations,’’ Richard said.

“We pretty much know everybody by name. Everyone here’s a regular.’’

After Gruber, the second longest serving trader at the shopping centre is hairdresser Sue Willoughby who opened Silver Streaks Hair Design in 1986 with her mum Robyn.

It was the year the Eels claimed their last premiership and perms were prominent.

“I was 21 when we opened this shop so I’ve been here a long time,’’ she said.

“It was the ‘80s and ‘90s hair — it was the big hair, it was the spiral perms.’’

It was only over the past year that Robyn shelved the scissors and stopped working alongside her daughter.

Silver Streaks Hair Design owner hairdresser Sue Willoughby.

Like many hairdressers, Willoughby, who grew up in North Rocks and now lives in the Hawkesbury, felt a surge of support from her clients after Covid lockdown lifted in October.

“There was constant messages on the phone; it was constant, constant,’’ she said.

“They were waiting at the door the day I opened. We’ve got a lovely clientele here. Everyone’s more like friends.’’

That friendship has extended to Willoughby spending two mornings during the week tending to the tresses of residents at Courtlands Village retirement home nearby.

A recent service to open is Sparks Developmental Specialists, a clinic for children.

For adults, North Parramatta Cellars keeps residents’ beverage supplies going.

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