Staying power — Local Paddo

When Peter Riccardo’s grandfather and father opened a barber shop on Oxford St in 1961, they had no idea it was the first chapter of a family legacy that would still be open for business six decades and one pandemic later.

The early days were tough. Paddington in the swinging 60s was an eclectic migrant community and Peter’s dad Sam had to master not only English, but basic Greek, Spanish and Portuguese to service local clientele. Then, as Beatlemania and the hippy movement swept through Sydney, the long-hair trend proved disastrous for barbers, forcing many around Paddington to close.

Riccardo’s father sent himself back to college to study ladies’ hairdressing and the family weathered the storm. The original barbershop sign hangs inside the shop, still on Oxford St today, testament to the staying power of hard work, adaptability and a little foresight.

“The smart thing wasn’t that my family bought a shop in Paddington,” Riccardo says. “It was the only place they could afford. The smart thing was that my dad never sold it.”

For Riccardo, the business is more than a shop front. Growing up, his family lived upstairs and he hung out with the other neighbourhood kids, watching movies at the local Police Citizens Youth Club on Underwood St.

“There are a lot of older locals who have known me since I was a young boy and now I'm becoming one of the older ones,” he jokes.

Chris Tourgelis also grew up in his family’s business. He was six years old when his parents bought Opus in 1978, after running a fish and chip shop in Double Bay. The business was already a decade old, launched by a couple in Ormond St before moving into a row of shops, since demolished, in front of Juniper Hall. During the decades, the Tourgelis family has worked their way up at different premises along Oxford St.

Although the family lived in the suburbs, Tourgelis spent his weekends in Paddington, tracking his childhood years alongside the suburb’s evolution from its blue-collar roots into a hub of creativity and fringe cultures.

He vividly remembers the cross section of people spilling out of the markets and pubs on a Saturday, from punks, and Mods with their Vespas, to artisans and creatives. By the late 80s, Paddington had become the place to be.

“It was always on the cutting edge of whatever was cool,” he says. “We had the best record shop in Sydney, Folkways Records, which would draw in all the big names. I got to see Duran Duran there.”

The excitement of those early years shaped Tourgelis.

“As a young kid from the suburbs, coming here on weekends and meeting people who were making films and doing every kind of thing imaginable, was amazing,” he says. “Whatever you dreamed of doing, there was already somebody doing it here. Paddington taught me that anything was possible.”

The seeds of that creativity were cultivated years before by the late reverend Peter Holden — a visionary young minister with the Uniting Church who, upon his return from America, where he helped organise the legendary Woodstock music festival, launched the Paddington Markets in 1973 on the church’s grounds.

Reverend Danielle Hemsworth-Smith, a current senior minister, says Holden noticed the migration of artists into the area and wanted to encourage the bohemian spirit and showcase the talent of the community.

Affectionally dubbed the Paddington Bazaar in the early days, the markets have been a Saturday morning ritual for Sydneysiders for nearly 50 years, and a launching pad for popular Aussie labels such as Zimmerman, Sass & Bide and Dinosaur Designs.

“The markets have always been the beating heart of Paddington’s progressive, creative and inclusive community,” Hemsworth-Smith explains. “Since the pandemic, we have introduced a fresh food component to reposition it as a community hub and encourage people to shop locally.”

This ability to flow with a changing tide is something Bill Wilson, owner of Paddington Farm Fresh Foods, knows something about. When he took over the butcher shop on Oxford St in 1985, there were seven other butchers in the neighbourhood and competition was tough.

Then, as the suburb gentrified and the fashion crowd moved in, another challenge presented itself: many of the fresh food shops closed and at times Wilson’s store was only one left standing.

He says the loss of BJ Lizard Fruit Market was probably the hardest blow.

“Suddenly our business started going down and down.” Not one to give up, Wilson decided to add fresh produce to his repertoire and not only did his business survive, during the decades it has continued to expand.

“There were lots of changes as we went along,” he says. “The reason Farm Fresh expanded is because whatever businesses we lost in the community, we added it into our own.”

Wilson also adapted to changes in local lifestyle. As more professional couples moved in, he noticed people working later and looking stressed when they hopped off the buses out the front of his store.

“As people got busier through the week, we started offering pre-prepared meals for them to pick up on their way home.”

Although the past two years have been tough, Wilson says things are coming full circle with more people cooking at home and shopping for natural ingredients such as fresh stocks.

“I think we’re going to see butcher shops coming back in a big way,” he says.

Two other local institutions, Ariel Books and Five Way Cellars, which both opened in 1987, have also survived the rollercoaster of retail, retaining their small-shop independence, despite the rise of the mega book and liquor stores.

Five Way Cellars’ Ian Cook credits his decision to open a fine wine store on Heeley St to an “out-of-control hobby”. During his economics degree at Sydney University, Cook discovered his passion for wine, but not the cask variety favoured by other students.

“All I was doing was reading about fine wine or spending money on visiting the wine regions and buying more wine,” he recalls.

Despite being accepted into a wine-making course, Cook decided to bring fine wines to Paddington, and while the business was slow to build, the characters around the neighbourhood kept him going.

“One of the things I loved the most was the arts fraternity,” he says. “John Olsen, David Boyd and Margaret Olley all lived up the back and were good customers. While Margaret didn’t drink herself, she entertained a lot.”

In the early days of the business, it was just Cook and his wife Prue in the store, so he’d take care of deliveries. He vividly recalls dropping off half-sized, twist-top VB stubbies to David Boyd.

“You’d walk past David’s place in the afternoon, the gate would be open, and you’d see him with a paintbrush in one hand, VB throwdown in the other, knocking out masterpieces,” Cook says.

Meanwhile, down the Taylor Square end of Oxford St, literary lover Jane Blanks opened Ariel Booksellers with a dream of creating a space that was “open all hours for people to mingle, relax and hopefully buy a book or two”.

Whatever hustle the area lacked during the day, it made up for in nightlife. With the Academy Twin Cinema and the Albury Hotel nearby, Ariel traded until midnight, seven days a week.

“There was a freedom to those early days,” her daughter and now owner, Julia Blanks, explains. “We had these crazy events and all night DJs, ideas were flowing and anything seemed possible.”

One of those events was a marathon reading of the comic literary classic, Don Quixote, in 2007 that went unbroken for three days and two nights with people flocking to the store at all hours, dressed in Spanish costume. The brainchild of Larry Buttrose and Belle Paterson, the event featured high-profile readers such as Frank Moorhouse, Ita Buttrose and comedian Mark ‘Bob Downe’ Trevorrow.

The family’s departure from the site in 2016 was a huge loss for the Paddington community. However, it’s also made Ariel’s recent return to Oxford St a real celebration.

“Leaving was hard,” Blanks says. “We viewed that store as a person, it had soul and history. However, the experience of re-opening in Paddington has been like coming home, so many familiar faces; the good times have started again.”

Laraine Russo understands the legacy a beloved business leaves behind. When she purchased the building that would become Alimentari, 26 years ago, she knew she was buying a story.

Built by the mayor of Paddington in 1901, the site operated for more than a century as a corner store and deli thanks to a succession of Italian families. The business was the continental deli and coffee shop Bonaventura, when quite by chance, Russo ran into an acquaintance at Bar Coluzzi in Darlinghurst, who mentioned “that deli in Paddington where you spend all your money is up for sale”.

It took almost four years to restore the building and get council approvals. During the decades since then, Russo’s transition from customer to custodian has not been without its learning curves. “I had worked as an aviation nurse,” she laughs. “I’d never cut a piece of prosciutto in my life.”

Whatever skills she lacked in the early days, Russo more than made up in keeping the legacy alive. She’s passionate about retaining the personal neighbourhood approach, which is why the staff will always write the order dockets by hand, call you by name and Alimentari’s doors remain closed on a Sunday.

“It doesn’t seem like 22 years,” Russo says. “I don’t really hold on to the hard times. I just consider myself extremely lucky that I still love walking through the door.”

Russo says the businesses around her corner-end of William St have always taken care of each other and she’s thrilled to see “people coming back to small businesses in the street”.

That intersection is most evident for Wilson. When Farm Fresh celebrates its 40th anniversary in around two years, his son will turn the same age as when he started the business.

“You have to put the business at the centre of your life, there’s no other way to say it,” Tourgelis says. “Anyone who has succeeded in Paddington pretty much lives their life the same way.”

Riccardo's Barber Shop

306 Oxford St

Opus

354 Oxford St

Paddington Markets

395 Oxford St

Paddington Farm Fresh Foods

348 Oxford St

Five Way Cellars

4 Heeley St

Ariel Books

326 Oxford St

Alimentari

2 Hopetoun St