New South

For 100 years, the Eveleigh Railway Workshops were the industrial hub of the state’s heavy infrastructure network, a place where, from 1887, trains were built to service NSW’s burgeoning public transport network.

Long since abandoned as a working factory, the space has become one of NSW’s most significant heritage locations. And now the soaring red-brick warehouses have been repurposed as a fresh force in Sydney food, with the launch of South Eveleigh’s Locomotive Workshops.

The space will house a collection of hospitality venues, with one of the first to open called Re, a bar by bartender Matt Whiley and restaurateur Maurice Terzini, who have decamped from Surry Hills’ The Dolphin hotel to produce this new venue (among other projects).

Re is described as “a regenerative drinking experience built from the ground up to be one of the world’s best bars”. There is a zero-waste ethos, with the venue built from recycled materials and deploying products such as reclaimed Maison Balzac glassware.

Photo: Kitti Gould

“We want to show how you can have an impact, so that other venues can look at us, then do the same”, says Whiley. “[We have] this really incredible, refined space with heritage character. We want to change people’s expectations of what low-waste means, and encourage others to build and operate this way.”

Re will be home to some of the city’s best-known bartenders including Evan Stroeve (Bulletin Place), Jake Downe (This Must Be The Place; Scout London) and Ho Song (Cantina OK; PS40). The food will be overseen by Icebergs Dining Room and Bar’s head chef Alex Prichard.

Re will operate alongside a host of street food venues including Eat Fuh, RaRa Chan, Steve Costi’s Famous Fish, Fishbowl and Bekya.

The big-name signings, though, are Kylie Kwong, who will shortly open her new restaurant in the space, while later in the year The Grounds will launch their third Sydney venue and event space on site.

“The vision for South Eveleigh has been not only to create a world-class technology and innovation hub to work and play, but also to curate a food and retail space that has people and community at its heart, and that is welcoming and accessible to everyone,” says Mirvac’s head of commercial property, Campbell Hanan.

SOUTH EVELEIGH

Locomotive St, Eveleigh

southeveleigh.mirvac.com