First Look: Stop at Leon in Randwick for Worldly Groceries and Hearty Ready-Made Meals

“I don’t know if you remember what used to be here? It was a minimart with an alterations place at the back. They had magazines here, the counter was here and the cigarettes were on that wall.” Eli Hagai is pointing around the space that now houses Leon, a deli and grocer that’s so crammed with good stuff, there are a million places to look.

He co-owns the new Clovelly Road joint, along with neighbouring cafe A Man and His Monkey , with Tom Paulus. When you first walk in, a retro, turquoise Cyber Chill fridge is stocked with drinks to your right, and to your left is Hagai’s “dream” line-up of pantry items. A glass counter in the middle once held a jigsaw of pots laden with whatever was made that morning, but it was replaced in favour of more seating – so the food’s now in the fridge too.

“The truth is: I built the whole shop around that fridge,” Hagai tells Broadsheet. “I saw that fridge about five years ago in an exhibition and it’s just like ‘I need that fridge’. I cannot fit it over there [in Man and Monkey]. I’ve been waiting.”

What type of food is it? “Home-cooked.” That’s it – hearty dishes from all over the world. “It’s just a big salad of dishes, a big mixture.” The menu changes daily, but you could find anything from Turkish stuffed capsicums and Iraqi dumplings, to Moroccan chicken bake and barramundi chraime (a North African fish stew). There are classic Italian lasagnes, Greek dolmades and tbit (an Iraqi chicken dish that’s slow-cooked overnight).

“It’s real food, this is the food I grew up on.”

The fit-out’s a ripper too, mostly due to the tropical oasis mural by Steady Hand Studio ’s Lance Corlett on one wall. “Ceiling, floor, walls, we’ve done everything. It took about six months to complete.” Art deco glass lights hang from the ceiling, and Corlett’s ornate gold lettering adorn the front.

There’s a tight made-to-order takeaway menu, too. A two-hands-needed schnitzel challah joins a sabich pita stuffed with house-made hummus, Israeli salad, fried eggplant and hard-boiled eggs. The arayes is a winner: lamb kofta is popped into a pita then baked till crispy. Falafels are on the way.

Going the whole way, pitas are flown in frozen from Jerusalem. “ Real pitas, they’re amazing. It’s completely different – the taste’s different, the texture’s different. In Israel we call them ‘cloud pita’, they’re so fluffy and nice.”

As for the curation of the pantry items, Hagai loves “just collecting nice things, special things”. His hobby delivers shelves stacked with “real” Hungarian paprika (which powers the best goulash Eli’s ever made), tins of fish soup and Lebanese tahini. There are jars of smoked honey and almond-stuffed olives, and bottles of bourbon maple syrup and date syrup. “We use [date syrup] for every single thing. It’s great on chicken, meat, salads, toast. It’s the whole Middle East in one bottle.”

The pair’s next-door cafe started out with sangas and coffee 10 years ago. “Look at it now! It’s pumping!” And, with the extra kitchen space Leon brings, it’ll only get better.

“I love to be creative. I love to come here in the morning with no plans, go into the cool room and go ‘Okay, I have this, this and that, let’s make something out of it’. That’s the best part.”

Leon
151 Clovelly Road, Randwick

Hours:
Thu to Sat 6.15am–3pm
Sun 7am–3pm

@leonclovelly