These excellent deli sandwiches are perfect for river walks, cycle stops and play dates

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The name used for Ol’ Mates, a new sandwich shop opened by brothers Nick and James Retsas in Earlwood, comes from a desire to focus on customer-staff camaraderie as something more than a mild nod at the espresso machine.

“‘Ol mate’ is the term we use behind the counter when we have customers here,” Nick says. “We know you when you walk into these doors. We know you drink the skim flat white. We know that your favourite sandwich is the brekky sandwich with pastrami and egg. And we may know that you’re in finance.

“But we don’t know you past that. You go off and you’re in the big bad world but, in here, we’re mates.”

On a humid autumn morning the Retsas approach is evident. Throngs of people arrive for sausage and egg sandwiches with chipotle mayonnaise on fat, soft potato buns, or cheddar and Swiss cheese toasties on bouncy tin-loaf white sourdough or heaving deli sandwiches with curls of mild salami, mortadella, provolone and kicky housemade Greek tirokafteri sauce.

Each customer is met with hearty welcomes, the kind that makes you wonder if you’ve met before and forgotten a deep, shared conversation.

After five minutes in Ol’ Mates spacious, light-filled, orange-flecked terrazzo-lined cafe, it’s difficult to distinguish fresh faces from regulars or longtime Retsas family friends, such is the bonhomie. “I’ve met the locals, I’ve got to know them and they’ve all said there was something missing in this area,” Nick says.

Ol’ Mates, on the cusp of Marrickville’s border with Earlwood, and metres from the Cooks River and Steel Park, sits below a long-awaited new apartment block on the former site of an Adora Handmade Chocolates cafe (now two minutes away on Wardell Road) and a residence.

Its customers range from passing cyclists, riverside walkers, bus passengers and small soaked children fresh from water park jets over the river bridge.

Most, if not all, discovered Ol’ Mates by simply passing by. The Retsas brothers had no grand opening, their social media announcements were sparing and the only advertisement was applying the shop’s orange-lettered branding on the front window.

“It’s a beautiful spot,” Nick says. “The open sky. The trees and greenery, the water. It’s just pleasant to be around. Imagine there was a train station here.
You might like trains but this is calm and surrounded by nature.”

The menu has 10 sandwiches divided between breakfast and lunch; there are hot
chips and hash browns for sides; and pastries range from whirling cinnamon scrolls to plate-size chocolate chip biscuits and varieties of croissant. Coffee, good, strong and available iced and cold brew, comes from Allpress Espresso.

Fridges feature Simon Says Juice, orange and pineapple varieties, in screw-top glass jars, along with Riverina strawberry milk and Sanpellegrino fruit drinks.

The stand-out breakfast sandwich is the sausage and egg option. There’s fine, gooey, fried egg and melty cheese but it’s the rich and meaty sausage patty – no weedy after-thought – that stands out between potato bun sides and a sweet herby sauce.

For lunch, try the deli, as filling as it is tasty, and the schnitzel, nicely cooked buttermilk crumbed chicken layered with pickles, cheese, lettuce and house-made Greek-inspired sauce.

Meats come from Whole Beast Butchery in Marrickville up the road and the bread and pastries are made at The Naked Baker in Mortdale.

The menu favours takeaway but people fill the orange and brown stools on the footpath outside and inside. There are no tables or window counters to eat at allowing, the Retsas brothers say, more space and a casual feel.

Nick and James are familiar with running a cafe in the area. Nick, whose first cafe was Bean Haus in Redfern, opened Frank and Chitch in 2021, a Cooks River-adjacent eating spot that teems with customers on the weekend.

“Frank and Chitch was such a big success it was kind of overwhelming,” Nick says. “That’s why we’ve had a more low-key opening here.

“But, obviously we’re going to be doing many more Ol’ Mates after this. We’re already looking for locations.”