Already buoyed by a posse of upcoming hospitality openings including a new Oxford Street eatery from Alpha chef Peter Conistis and a hatted chef takeover of the Grand National Hotel, Paddington’s restaurant resurgence can now add Jimmy’s Falafel to the list.

The powerhouse Middle Eastern Merivale eatery will open a couple of doors west of sister restaurant Fred’s in mid-2024, on a strip of Oxford Street that appeared to be on its knees a decade ago.

When Justin Hemmes bought The Paddington Arms (now The Paddington) in 2014, Oxford Street was one-way traffic in departing big-name retailers and pocked with vacant shops.

“I really believe in the area,” Hemmes said at the time of his purchase. “I think it’s going to come good.”

With Sydney dining institution Claude’s having joined the departures on the strip a few months earlier, the Merivale chief had more than a few sceptics.

“It’s great to be an emerging part of that precinct,” Jimmy’s Falafel head chef Simon Zalloua says of a strip now on a major upward trajectory.

Zalloua has the luxury of tapping the intel of colleagues at a swag of neighbouring Merivale venues, from the upmarket Fred’s to The Chicken Shop and cocktail bar Charlie Parker’s. He is confident Jimmy’s Falafel hits all of Paddington’s nuanced trading patterns.

What will Jimmy’s Falafel Paddington menu look like? Zalloua expects to sell a lot of its famed wraps and pitas when the Swans and Roosters crowds make their way through the suburb. They’ve made 140,000-odd of them since they opened the first Jimmy’s three years ago on George Street in the CBD.

“Jimmy’s needs to be fun,” he says. “It needs to be fast and furious and a little chaotic.” But Zalloua wants to tailor the Paddington menu for locals and more serious mid-week and weekend clientele. “There’ll be a couple of new dishes, whole shoulders of lamb, that sort of thing,” he says. It will also have a bar.

Jimmy’s Falafel will have plenty of company. Around the corner in Underwood Street, the Grand National Hotel is currently undergoing refurbishment, with acclaimed Sydney chef Josh Niland and restaurateur Julie Niland planning to relocate their hatted fin-to-tail seafood restaurant Saint Peter to the hotel. It’s on track to open in late 2023.