Burwood Chinatown group brings Spicetown to Sydney’s Little Italy

Burwood Chinatown group takes Spicetown to Sydney’s Little Italy.

An old pub in Sydney’s inner west that had been shut for eight years has been transformed into an Asian-themed food precinct.

The creators of Burwood Chinatown have brought the concept behind the well-known food precinct to a Sydney suburb known for its Italian heritage and numerous pizzerias, cafes and the Italian Forum – a 25-year-old cultural hub that combines restaurants, clothing stores, market stalls and events in a 365-seat theatre and auditorium.

Spicetown Leichhardt arrives at a time the area has seen a spike in Asian restaurants and grocers in recent years, including the arrival of Korean fried chicken franchise Krazy Bird as well as Japanese grocery store Amami Mart and KL Food Truck, which operated a pop-up late-night Malaysian food truck in Sydney Car Wash at 568-572 Parramatta Rd.

Inside Spicetown Leichhardt.

KL Food Truck drew massive crowds to the area and often had no empty seats before it closed down, so a development on the block could get underway.

Gina Liros is executive manager of The Burwood Hotel & Burwood Chinatown, the group behind Spicetown Leichhardt.

“We’ve owned the hotel for a long time, and sadly it has been closed for a long time. We felt that with the experience that we’ve gained through operating Burwood Chinatown and Spicetown Sefton that it would be a great time to reopen the hotel and bring some vibrancy back to Leichhardt,” she said.

The new precinct is around 400sq m in total and will host between 18 and 20 food operators on the ground floor as well as a bar called Cosmos on the first floor.

The venue, at 95 Norton St, is wedged between a JB HiFi and a commercial building with office space for lease.

It sits just metres from Palace Cinemas, Berkelouw Leichhardt Bookshop and a Coles supermarket inside Norton Plaza, which has basement parking.

Cosmos Bar will operate on the 1st floor inside Spicetown Leichhardt.

Ms Liros said Spicetown Leichhardt would operate from 4pm to midnight between Thursdays and Sundays and would consider opening on other days pending its success.

The concept is borrowed from the group’s first Spicetown in Sefton, a night market about 18km west that is temporarily closed. Ms Liros said she expected it to re-open early next year.

Spicetown arrives after several years of struggle for Leichhardt and the Italian Forum, which has grown increasingly empty since the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, Norton St has been pretty sad over the past few years. It would be nice to bring some excitement back to the area and I hope we can do that,” Ms Liros said.

The Italian Forum on Norton St in Leichhardt. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The Italian Forum was sold to private developer Redstone for $11m in April last year, with this masthead revealing that low-profile investor Robert Paterson, who has been linked by corporate filings to Redstone, was behind the play.