’Very sad’ reason Sydney restaurant The Sausage Factory is closing down

A Sydney restaurant owner has shared the unusual reason why her much-loved business is closing down forever – and it’s got nothing to go with money.

Through a flood of tears a Sydney restaurant owner has revealed she is shutting the joint down forever – but it’s got nothing to do with money or staff shortages.

Several small businesses across Australia have announced their closure this year – most recently a Brisbane bakery called Bella and Tortie – with the boss blaming staff shortages, rising cost of ingredients as well as the supply chain crisis as the reasons for the popular bakery’s demise.

But The Sausage Factory’s Chrissy Flanagan, owner of the restaurant and bar that is located in Sydney’s inner west, shared with followers that her beloved joint was closing down because she had split up with her partner and co-owner Jim.

The couple had started the business back in 2018 offering free-range, gourmet sausages as well as beers produced in a small closet at the back of its on-site factory, which incorporated Australian Indigenous ingredients.

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Sausage Queen Chrissy Flanagan opened the Sausage Factory in Dulwich Hill in 2018. Picture: News Corp

Chrissy was also well known for knitting sausage decorations for the venue at the big table in the window, but she revealed the “sad” news that the restaurant would be shutting for good in 10 days on December 17.

“My ex-partner Jim and I, it’s both of our baby, we both love it so, so much. We have tried to make it work as business partners and unsurprisingly being two months separated, it’s hard and we haven’t been able to manage it,” she said in a TikTok video.

“And rather than one of us run it without the other, neither of us feel that would be right or that we would even want to do it, so we have made the really tough decision to shut it down.

“It’s very, very sad. I hadn’t worked a day in hospitality in my life, not an hour before we opened The Sausage Factory and I just had to figure it out and I was Googling ‘How do you take an order? and Jim had to do the same thing.

“He’s an incredible chef and he had never worked in a kitchen before and we figured it out and we are both really proud of what we built.”

The Sausage Factory shopfront. Picture: Supplied

She added that after five-and-a-half years it was “the end of the road” for the restaurant but that sausage making classes would continue and that the former partners would both separately be doing fun, exciting and successful things in the future.

“Sometimes you have to let go of the things that you really, really love as it’s just over, it was precious and it’s over,” she said in a flood of tears.

The Sausage Factory’s website had promised customers “a rowdy atmosphere, an epic playlist and very detailed information about the origin of your beer and sausage”, stocking 35 beers and women-made wine.

“We make our own sausages, hand twisted in small batches on site, made from real meat, no junk, and always certified free range,” the website said.

The Sausage Factory -co-owner Chrissy Flanagan at the bar. Picture: Supplied

The Sausage Factory’s last day will be on December 17. Picture: News Corp

Many commented on the post sharing their own sadness that the business was closing and praising the two former partners on their “incredible accomplishment”

“It was plain to see you both put a lot of your hearts and souls into the Sausage Factory. When businesses end, the grief is real, but the soul you put into it returns to you, and you’ll breathe that life into your next endeavour,” one person wrote.

“Two big changes at once is hard, be kind to yourself,” another wrote.

“My heart goes out to you. I owned a bakery with my husband and we nearly ended up going down the same path. My heart was crushed and it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Take time to hurt, grieve and be angry and then move forward and find a new dream,” one woman said.