Mary’s to add gritty casual vibes to North Sydney’s burgeoning food scene

The Sydney burger venue that first opened on a graffiti-daubed side street in Newtown in 2013 is headed to North Sydney with a new 50-seat outlet. Mary’s joins a posse of food venues opening mid-2024 above the incoming Victoria Cross Station, part of the $21.6 billion Metro City network.

“After 10 glorious years of stuffing faces, we’re incredibly excited to deliver our special brand of mayhem over the Coat Hanger to our North Sydney brethren,” Mary’s co-owner Jake Smyth says. “Expect cold beers, tasty tunes and some truly delicious burgers.”

Mary’s has never been short of confidence (and controversy), describing itself as “the big bad burger bar that saved Sydney from itself”. Smyth promises “sneaky” new menu items at North Sydney (he won’t say what), an all-natural wine list curated by hip liquor merchants P&V, and a cocktail line-up curated by Matthew Bax, who was behind Melbourne’s tiny but mighty (and now-closed) 15-person Bar Americano.

Joining Mary’s is a roll-call of Sydney food brands, including one of this city’s best banh mi purveyors, Marrickville Pork Roll, as well as Only Coffee, Sushi Hub and bubble tea chain Machi Machi. There will also be a McDonald’s. Of the 20 food and beverage retailers in the precinct, 13 will open next year, with the remaining landing in 2025.

If it’s all sounding decidedly un-North Sydney, you’re probably thinking of the post-Olympics era, where the food action in the northern business district stuttered. The new Victoria Cross Station development – which will connect the northern CBD suburb to Barangaroo in three minutes and see more than 15,000 passengers pass through it every morning – is fuelling the suburb’s revival and shifting food scene.

Sydney restaurateur Derek Puah, who is joining the new arrivals above the station with his fast-casual Japanese chain Dopa, is bullish about North Sydney – and not just because the new train line will drop passengers right near his 30-seater.

He’s operated another venue from his Sydney food stable in the postcode, Devon Cafe (it closed during the pandemic), and thinks proposals for the area, such as blocking off traffic and making some streets pedestrian-only, are changing it for the better.

“I think the opening of restaurants such as Rafi has been a game-changer,” Puah says. “North Sydney had a midweek corporate [customers] market, but on weekends at Devon we had to attract clientele in. Now I think North Sydney has become a destination.”

The level of restaurants has certainly lifted. In August, ambitious wood-fired eatery Poetica joined the party and landed an impressive 15/20 review (and hat) from Good Food critic Callan Boys. A 250-seat Mexican-inspired bar and kitchen, Four Hundred, opened on the Greenwood Plaza rooftop in October.