Sydney’s Best Picnic Packs This Week: Multiple Sandos, A Negroni and Pottery Set, and a Luxe Spread From Chiswick

While in the before times our social lives were rich with bar-hopping, long Sunday lunches and Friday-arvo pub visits, they’ve lately narrowed down to the size of a Zoom window. But now our socialising scope has thankfully expanded to picnicking. We still have to remain within five kilometres of our homes – and it’s not much consolation when it’s raining – but we will absolutely take what we can get. We’re taking our first steps towards entering hospo venues again by jazzing up our picnic rugs with spreads from restaurants, bars and even breweries. Here’s five picnic packs we’re into this week.

Sandoitchi, Darlinghurst
Sandwiches really do make the best picnic snack – they’re easy to transport, you don’t need to worry about plates or cutlery, and you can keep a hand free for tinnie-holding duties. Sandoitchi’s sando set ($95) comes with six sandos: Wagyu katsu, egg, Wagyu menchi (mince) and bone marrow, prawn, buttermilk fried chicken and strawberry. It feeds two to four people. Order here for click and collect.

Clay, Marrickville and Enmore
Ceramics studio Clay Sydney is adding an interactive element to your next picnic. Its pottery picnic box ($80) not only comes with drinks and snacks – a G&T and a Negroni Spritz from Poor Toms, and spiced chickpeas from Bloodwood – but also comes with a lump of clay and tools to get creative while you luxuriate on your picnic rug. After lockdown ends, drop your new piece off at Clay’s Victoria Road, Marrickville studio to get it glazed and fired in the kiln. Order here for delivery.

Fabbrica, CBD
Sure, you could head into Fabbrica and put together your own picnic pack with all the mortadella, buffalo blue and tinned fish you want. Or, you could let the in-the-know team do the hard yards for you. Its Fabb picnic pack ($80) comes with a host of treats: brie, smoked paprika chips, saucisson, olives, baguette and bread-and-butter pickles. But we reckon go the grand slam with the Grande picnic pack ($160) – it’s got all of the above, as well as terrine, tinned fish, lavosh and loads more. Add on RTD Aperol Spritzes for ultimate picnicking joy. Order here for pick up or home delivery.

Chiswick, Woollahra
We’d expect nothing less than the best from Matt Moran’s beloved restaurant – and its picnic package ($120) definitely delivers. Think wood-fired flatbread, barra-masalata (like barramundi taramasalata), Vanella burrata, cheese, strawberry and passionfruit trifle and more. Match with a half-litre bottle of rhubarb Negroni for ultimate spring-picnic vibes. Order here for pickup.

Willie the Boatman, St Peters
Long gone are the days when the best feed you’d get with your beer was a meat pie or sausage roll. Inner-west brewery Willie the Boatman is doing picnics in style, collaborating with Jackalope Food Co for a hamper ($180) with enough to feed five. They’re flush with multiple cheeses, dips, cured meats, seasonal fruits, crackers, and – importantly – 16 beers. Excited about a date lunch? It’s doing two-person hampers ($110), too. Order here, five days in advance for pickup.