Sydney’s Australia Street Suites: Boutique stays above four trendy restaurants

How often have you wished a great meal could last all day – and maybe all night, and into the next morning? Thanks to a growing trend of restaurants opening on-site accommodation, the experience doesn’t have to end at dessert.

The latest to join the line-up comes from Paisano and Daughters, the team behind the beloved Sydney bar and bistro Continental Deli in Newtown. Continental sits in one of four terraces in the heritage-listed 1910s-era H May building on Australia Street.

“We always thought it’d be cool to have all four and resurrect them,” co-founder Sarah Doyle says. It was a vision they planned to action 20 years down the line but, considering the nature of the Sydney real estate market, they realised they’d have to move swiftly to make their dream a reality.

As the terraces came up for sale, they acquired them. Earlier this year, the team opened a trio of new venues on the ground floor alongside Continental Deli: Flora, a plant-based all-day diner; Mister Grotto, a seafood bar; and Osteria Mucca, an Italian eatery.

Above each venue sits a two-bedroom apartment, which collectively form a new boutique accommodation offering called the Australia Street Suites. The design and name of each echoes the restaurant below: Flora is a buttery yellow; MG (for Mister Grotto) is navy; and Mucca is an olive green.

Guests can pre-order the group’s cult canned cocktails – Mar-tinny, Cosmopoli-tin, Mexi-can Margarita – as well as charcuterie, cheese and the famed “flan in a can” from below. You can even have champagne and oysters from Mister Grotto waiting for you when you arrive. Or just wander downstairs and ask for a special bottle from any of the restaurants’ wine lists. “We’re small enough and flexible enough to do that,” Doyle says.

The suites were inspired by the love Doyle and her husband, chef Elvis Abrahanowicz, share for Sydney’s inner west.

“Elvis and I have lived in the inner west for as long as we’ve been together, and we have always believed the inner west is best, but the problem is that there is nowhere to stay,” she says. “It’s a really great representation of what Sydney offers, so we thought, ‘we’ll do something about it, we’ll open accommodation so people have a reason to stay’.”

The result? Apartments so welcoming that you might not want to leave. Each suite sleeps four and is fitted out with custom-designed pieces from Jardan, AH Beard beds and pieces from local artists Toni Clarke and Kyle Murrell. You’ll also find McMullin & Co mirrors, Sheridan linen and Leif products in the bathroom.

Doyle likes to fill the fruit bowl for guests and stocks the fridge and pantry with sugo, olive oil, condiments and a loaf from Humble Bread. There’s even a “nana trolley” in each apartment in case you want to head to Carriageworks Farmers Market to pick up local produce and cook. But with four restaurants just below, you’ll likely want to carve out time to spend at each.