Trendy new cafe The Wood Pantry opens opens in industrial Villawood
When Hanny Itaoui and his brother Sam were scoping locations for their trendy new cafe, Villawood seemed like an obvious choice.
The Express
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WHEN Hanny Itaoui and his brother Sam were scoping locations for their trendy new cafe, Villawood seemed like an obvious choice.
For one, there was nothing quite like it for residents used to seeing row upon row of warehouses and industrial estates.
Enter The Woods Pantry.
“I don’t think anyone else is putting in that effort and love that we have into somewhere like this,” Mr Itaoui said.
“I think up here, as a community, we don’t really have access to anything like cafes like this … People shouldn’t have to drive one hour to have a nice coffee or a creative dish.”
Those dishes range from mouth-watering baked eggs, a rib eye dripping with house-made herb butter and burgers more at home in inner west eateries that serve food on chopping boards.
Despite only opening just before Christmas, The Woods Pantry is already driving food-loving Instagrammers crazy.
“They feel like they are in a different area,” Mr Itaoui said.
“When they get eating, there are a lot of questions about how we came up with the menu. They love it.”
He said a Lebanese mezze “big breakfast” board was the most popular dish.
The 34-yar-old former high school PE teacher said the brothers were inspired to open a cafe by their father.
“When he first immigrated here 40 years ago, he started a Lebanese sweet business in Auburn,” Mr Itaoui said.
“We grew up always hosting people at our house – it was pretty much a tradition on the weekends.”
Mr Itaoui hopes the cafe will inspire others to start similar businesses in Villawood.
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