Cold winter days, lock down restrictions, working from home and the very thought of heading to the major shopping centres for essentials quite frankly gives me anxiety. Thankfully we’ve discovered an upside to lock down and it’s all about living in our little food haven called the Inner West.

We’re always in awe at how quickly our local businesses pivot and while we may not be able to dine out right now, many are providing special grocery goods, online ordering and home delivery options. Our kitchens can be stocked with some seriously fabulous goods, treats and produce to keep our tastebuds in tact and stocking up locally means supporting a small business and local employment at the same time.

Here’s where you can stock up in Inner West style:

A range of deli and canned foods and most importantly canned cocktails from Newtown’s Continental Deli. Continental’s takeaway and home delivery range just gets better with lock down and it should be at the top of your stock up list! We’ve filled our kitchen with an array of Continental cans. The Flan in a Can matches perfectly with slippers and Netflix, their amazing XOXO sauce pimps up our pasta like never before and we’ll turn to their Canned Potato and Leek soup for weekday lunches. But it’s their most important staple, and a lock down special you really need to stock up on to get you through some testing moments – the Continental Cocktails in a Can. You may just find me sipping on a Mar-tinny by 3pm most days once home schooling kicks back in (don’t judge).

DIY pizza kits from Hank’s Hot Box. Here’s a story to warm your heart. Last year Covid kicked Marrickville local and former Commercial Airline Pilot, Nick Allen right out of a job and into starting up a new family business, Hank’s Hot Box. Nick and wife, Lauren had a teeny baby to feed at the time. They now create restaurant quality, make at home pizza kits which they sell at Orange Grove Farmer’s Markets.

Just this week and right in time for lock down, they have launched Hank’s Hot Box on line and will deliver straight to your Inner West address. Hank’s pizzas are locally hand made with single origin Australian flour and they hand stretch the dough after it has fermented for 48 hours. Even the cheese is by local artisans cheese makers. Stock your freezer with plain bases or pimp them up with all the extras. Pizza nights have never been the same since we discovered Hanks! Order up here.

Artisan sourdough and bakery treats from Newtown’s home based micro-bakery, Hawk Bakery. Reduce your need to leave the house and order your bread and treats straight to your door from Newtown’s home based micro-bakery, Hawk Bakery.

Another local business born out of Covid last year and brought to us by a local hobbyist baker, Matthew who was taught the love of baking by his beloved Nonna. Matthew delivers twice a week and you can order on line – it’s a micro-bakery so the runs are small and everything is made from scratch without using any premixes, improvers or dough conditioners. What I love the most about getting a delivery from Matthew is that it is wrapped and delivered with so much love that it feels like a delightful gift has arrived at your door – you’ll see what I mean when your first order arrives!

At home fine dining by Chef Gavin Carfax-Foster. Now this is the one we’ve all been waiting for. Gavin has just announced he kicking off his Westbourne Lane pop up this week and Stanmore locals are literally doing cartwheels over this!

If you missed all the buzz last lockdown, Gavin is the Culinary Director and Group GM of Dedes Waterfront and his experience spans across restaurants including Flying Fish, est, Bather’s Pavillion and many more fine dining restaurants. His culinary creations are next level delicious and made with restaurant quality ingredients in a commercial sanitised kitchen.  

This week Slow cooked beef cheeks, Sri Lankan fish curry and kale, potato and ricotta dumplings with Napoletana sauce are on the menu. Follow Gavin on Instagram to see how you can order, pay and collect. His first pop up is this Wednesday.

Fresh and frozen pasta and sauces from Newtown’s La Favola. There really is nothing more comforting in lock down than a big bowl of authentic pasta and we love the pasta and sauces from La Favola which you can buy fresh or frozen. Order on line and they’ll deliver to your door Thursday-Saturdays. Check out their Dal Mare Sauce – you’ll thank me later for introducing you to this freezer staple.

Cow and The Moon, Enmore is now delivering via Bopple. Need I say more? How about an entire litre of Salted Caramello or their famous and award winning Mandorla Affogato sitting in your freezer? No need to leave the house, the essentials are offially sorted!

Pickles, jams and condiments from Cornersmith in Annandale. No Inner West pantry is complete without a jar of Cornersmith pickles on the shelf and we’re in luck because they’ve just re-stocked their well known Chai Spiced Breakfast prunes. If you’re suffering from lock down boredom you can even purchase an online pickling courses that you can attend from home in the comfort of your own kitchen.

The return of the Sixpenny General Store in Stanmore. It’s not often – ok really ever that we can enjoy the goods at home of a three hatted fine dining restaurant and lock down is about the only exception. The queues are long at this one but the Hazelnut Choux Bun and Russian Honey Cake with Black Truffle look like they are worth it. You can pre-order to skip the queue. Just remember to stick to the social distancing rules if you visit this one!

Make at home Ramen packs from Rising Sun Workshop, Newtown. A great way to warm up a cold day is with a Ramen at home pack from Newtown’s Rising Sun. They’re selling them and delivering to your door frozen, fresh, with booze or without and you can even buy bake at home cookie dough to top it all off. Great to have on hand to whip up a perfect Ramen whilst working from home.

Souvlaki and more from Marrickville’s Souvlaki Boys. We may not be able to travel to Greece right now but at least we can transport our tastebuds thanks to the Souvlaki Boys. They are taking phone orders and delivering a couple of times a week right now.

Sausages and beer from The Sausage Factory in Dulwich Hill.  Known as the Sausage Queen herself and a passionate advocator and supporter of small local businesses, Chrissie Flanagan has a freezer of sausages which are all hand twisted in small batches and made on site using only certified free range meat. She sells her own brewed beer which makes for a perfect pairing. Follow Chrissie’s Instagram for lockdown freezer opening and collection times.

Ready made meals from Stix at Marrickville. The end of a catering contract for Qantas meals brought us Stix at Marrickville last year and as catering experts they also stock a range of single portion ready made meals which you can purchase online for home delivery. Stock your freezer with Tamarind Barramundi Curry and Snake Beans with Egg Noodles or Stix Farm Organic Ratatouille with Potato Gnocchi. Stix use organically grown produce from their farm on the Hawksbury River and their meals come vacuum sealed ready to heat up and serve.

If you do find your pantry bare never fear, we’ve got so many special lock down dine at home options from the likes of Hartsyard, Stanbuli and Bloodwood to name just a few. Many of our local bars such as The Rio and Tiki Bar are now selling takeaway cocktails and you can keep your growlers filled up at most of the breweries – see lock down isn’t all bad! We’re continually posting these in our Instagram stories if you want to keep up with who’s doing what.

Stay safe, stay home and enjoy living in the most delectable part of Sydney during lock down.

Annika and Blake