NewsBite

Advertisement

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

From the fried chicken sandwich on good-on-ya-mum white bread to the puffy salt-and-vinegar potato scallops, Mixed Business Enmore is nostalgia made manifest.

Callan Boys

The bar is an upstairs revamp of an Enmore corner site that has enjoyed 55 years of stewardship by the Sofy family.
1 / 11The bar is an upstairs revamp of an Enmore corner site that has enjoyed 55 years of stewardship by the Sofy family. Jennifer Soo
 Fried chicken and toum sandwich.
2 / 11 Fried chicken and toum sandwich.Jennifer Soo
Kon’s spicy feta and bullhorn peppers.
3 / 11Kon’s spicy feta and bullhorn peppers.Jennifer Soo
4 / 11 Jennifer Soo
Sujouk sausage.
5 / 11Sujouk sausage.Jennifer Soo
Olives and cucumbers.
6 / 11Olives and cucumbers.Jennifer Soo.
7 / 11 Jennifer Soo
Aatayef (fried pancakes stuffed with orange blossom ricotta).
8 / 11Aatayef (fried pancakes stuffed with orange blossom ricotta).Jennifer Soo
Milk pudding with choc halva crumble.
9 / 11Milk pudding with choc halva crumble.Jennifer Soo
10 / 11 Jennifer Soo
11 / 11 Jennifer Soo
14/20

Lebanese$

Film prequels rarely live up to expectations created by the original: The Phantom Menace. The Hobbit. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. A restaurant prequel, though? Let’s do it. I’d never heard of the concept until Emma’s Snack Bar owner, Anthony Sofy, described his new venture, Mixed Business, as a prequel when it opened in early May.

The bar is an upstairs revamp of an Enmore corner site that has enjoyed 55 years of stewardship by the Sofy family. Anthony’s parents, Lebanese migrants George and Emma, opened an actual mixed business at the address in 1970; Emma started serving Lebanese food at the shop in the 1980s and Anthony took over as chef in 1999. The space eventually became Emma’s Snack Bar, a lone restaurant among Liberty Street’s residential terraces.

Sujouk sausage.
Sujouk sausage.Jennifer Soo
Advertisement

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.

Aatayef (fried pancakes stuffed with orange blossom ricotta).
Aatayef (fried pancakes stuffed with orange blossom ricotta).Jennifer Soo

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.

Advertisement
Kon’s spicy feta and bullhorn peppers.
Kon’s spicy feta and bullhorn peppers.Jennifer Soo

“Kon’s spicy feta”, baked with charred bullhorn peppers, tastes a little bit Super Supreme pizza, a little bit backyard Greek barbie. Jatz crackers make an appearance on the side. Golfball-sized beef and lamb koftas are appropriately juicy and your go-to with a $13 pour of the house shiraz that’s served in a wine glass so thick it could be a real-world Cluedo weapon. The cheffiest dish is mahalabia milk pudding covered in a ragtag mix of nuts, sour cherry, buttery crumble and fudge-like chocolate halva. Texture five ways to Sunday.

Meanwhile, I’d come back just for the light and creamy atayef pancakes, folded like empanadas and filled with orange blossom-tinged ricotta. A beaut little way to cap off an evening, perhaps with a stove-top coffee or nicely done whisky sour. Like any good mixed business, the Sofy family’s new spot is made to service different needs and occasions. If there’s ever a sequel, I’d be stoked to have it on my own street.

The low-down

Atmosphere: Neighbourhood bar telling its own Lebanese-Australian story

Go-to dishes: Atayef pancakes with orange-blossom ricotta ($14, pictured); fried chicken and toum sandwich ($20); Kon’s spicy feta and bullhorn peppers ($17)

Drinks: Unlike Emma’s you can’t BYO, but you can order competitively priced highballs, spritzes and fruit-forward cocktails, plus a few wines hovering around $60 a bottle.

Cost: About $80 for two, excluding drinks

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

Advertisement

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine

Continue this edition

The July 5 Edition
Up next
Braised beef short rib banh mi.
  • Review

Melbourne’s most expensive banh mi costs $58. Is it a gimmick or worth it?

Ostentatious and theatrical, OTT Vietnamese steakhouse TungThit makes an impact on scruffy Victoria Street.

Happy hours aren’t just for bars and restaurants. Here’s how to enjoy one at home

Terry Durack raises a glass to the ritual of an after-work drink and snack.

Previous
Helen Goh’s Dubai chocolate brownies.

Helen Goh takes the viral Dubai chocolate bar and makes it even better

Inspired by the pistachio chocolate, this brownie is a textural treat in every bite.

See all stories

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up
Callan BoysCallan Boys is Good Food’s national eating out and restaurant editor.Connect via Twitter or email.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement

Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/goodfood/sydney-eating-out/the-family-run-bar-our-critic-would-be-stoked-to-have-on-his-own-street-20250630-p5mbel.html