Sisters bring taste of US to southwest Sydney with Miss America’s Pop-Up Diner

THERE’S a secret pop up retro US diner in Sydney’s southwest and it’s cheesy, greasy and calorific. At Miss America’s Pop-up Diner girls in pin-up dresses bring you burgers, fries and Fat Elvis hot dogs.

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RIVERWOOD has a secret — a cheesy, greasy, calorific secret. It’s called Miss America’s Pop-up Diner.

By day it’s an unassuming cafe, run by sisters Constance Chalazia, 25, and Alexis Barberakis, 21.

But drive by on a Friday or Sunday night and you’ll see arguably one of Sydney’s best burger joints pumping in the southwest.

Sisters Alexis Barberakis and Constance Chalazia have always had a love of US culture and food. Picture: Robert Pozo

Pink flamingoes, powder blue deck chairs, sundae lamps, red lippy — two hours of decorating goes into making the diner the experience it is.

Elvis croons over the stereo and girls in pin-up dresses bring over Fat Elvis hotdogs.

It all began almost two years ago, when the sisters began “chasing the perfect American burger”.

“Wherever we went we enjoyed it, but my sister always said ‘it’s just not what I imagine. I’m dreaming of this burger and I want to create it’,” Alexis, said.

“I said what the hey, let’s just do it.

“We could have stuck to having the cafe but we wanted to challenge ourselves and bring something to the area.”

The vibe of the pop-up diner is something you’d expect to find if you’d been teleported back to 50s America. Picture: Robert Pozo

Alexis and Constance say food is like fashion and there are phases but right now burgers are in. Picture: Robert Pozo

And bring something they did — not that it was easy to convince the food bloggers of that.

“A lot of people said we don’t go down that end of Sydney,” Alexis said.

“But once they saw the food, they started coming and coming.

“Food is like fashion, it has phases and right now it’s definitely burgers.”

The retro diner dishes up everything you’d expect if you’d stumbled into an American cafe in the 1950s.

Chilli dogs, hot wings, apple pie and the hero of the menu — the Nevada Get Me Wong with homemade sauce.

The hero of the menu — the Nevada Get Me Wong — two beef patties, melted cheddar, bacon, lettuce, onion jam, pickles and house made Nevada sauce. Picture: Robert Pozo

“We mimicked the sauce from America’s In-N-Out burger,” Constance says as a customer pipes in from across the diner — “It’s heaps better than ­In-N-Out”.

Another favourite is the heart attack fries which come with bacon, cheese and crispy shallots — not for the faint-hearted.

Miss America’s cheesy fries and the infamous heart attack fries — not for the faint hearted. Picture: Robert Pozo

A stethoscope is administered to anyone tackling the fries and the sisters assure no one has been carted off to hospital.

It’s just one of the novel gestures that make the atmosphere as good as the food.

“When people want takeaway we’re like do you really want takeaway?” Constance said.

“I want you to come hear the music, see the girls dress up, it’s all an experience.

“It’s the music, the culture, the colourfulness that makes American food so popular.”

Miss America’s

The pop-up diner is open Friday and Sunday nights from 6pm

Run by sisters Constance Chalazia and Alexis Barberakis out of The Spot Caffe Riverwood

Menu highlights are the Nevada Get Me Wong burger and heart attack fries

Bookings essential

Location: 210 Belmore Rd, Riverwood