Marrickville Gets A Breakfast Collab Between Mates With Coconut Sambol, Falooda And Miso Chai
I’ve spent nearly a decade writing about Sydney’s hospitality scene, and by 2026, it’s become clear that the city’s most compelling food moments aren’t about who’s opening what next, and when.
Instead, limited-run menu collaborations have quietly become the city’s most culturally attuned way to dine—chefs and food lovers stepping into each other’s spaces, venues lending kitchens to friends, and the meals themselves becoming stories.
Globally, the hospitality industry is responding to a world that feels hungry for authenticity over scale. After years of pandemic disruption, oversaturated openings, and digital noise, what resonates now is the human dimension of dining.
This trend shows no sign of slowing either. At Potts Point’s PIÑA and Room 10, actor and creative Yan Yan Chan has launched two menu specials drawing on her Northern Chinese upbringing and long conversations with the café’s co-owner Andrew about food and memory. Running through to the end of Lunar New Year on March 3, the collaboration is modest in scale but expansive in intention: a reimagined jian bing at PIÑA and a double-matcha affogato at Room 10, with proceeds supporting the Soul of Chinatown Rice Fund, which provides grocery hampers and meals to elderly Chinese-Australians.
Elsewhere, Sunday Arvos at Ace Hotel is the city’s staple chef series, a glorified laneway pizza cook-up with mates. For its fourth instalment last month, Melbourne’s Ellie Bouhadana riffed on her St Kilda summer kiosk, presenting a focaccia-stuffed reworking of her cult fish pita and a za’atar-laced, cheese-heavy flatbread, both cooked to order.
Into this evolving scene steps Table At Gaya’s x Angus, a menu collaboration running from February 7 to February 21 at Marrickville’s home of Angus. The partnership brings together Gayathiri Manoharan from Table At Gaya’s and Christos Arsenis, co-owner of Angus, for a three-part menu built around sharing with friends.
Unlike most collaborations, their connection wasn’t forged via press release or pitch deck. It began one busy weekend last July, when Gaya wandered into Angus, skipped the table wait, and asked if she could have "a milk crate by the gutter and a ‘have here’ cup” for her drink.
“I ended up being the one to run her coffee out to her, and we just got chatting,” Christos recalls.
“We have a lot of shared experiences; having moved to Australia as children, being connected to our roots, having spent time in hospo, and both being really into food.”
What could have been a fleeting encounter evolved into a friendship over the latter half of 2025.
“I started going there often—it became a place of joy on my days off and sometimes even a space to work from,” Gaya says.
“Even when the café was packed, I just wanted to be amongst the people. No matter how busy it was, Christos always made the effort to seat me and deliver top-tier service.”
Gaya had been contemplating a menu collaboration for some time but wasn’t sure on the direction—or the partner. She still remembers the first time she walked into Angus. In true serendipity, she mentions something in her gut told her this was the café. At that point, she didn’t know Christos and wasn’t yet a regular, but she wanted to let the relationship unfold naturally before pitching a collaboration.
“We caught up for a wine at Where’s Nick just after New Year,” Christos recalls.
“Gaya pitched me on this collab. It was a very serious and professional pitch, as if I really needed convincing—which I thought was funny. I was always going to say yes. For me, it’s mainly about doing something fun with a friend because we can, and the fact that we get to highlight some ethnic food is gravy.”
Crafting the menu at Angus was really about one thing for Gaya: breakfast she genuinely loves.
Growing up in a Sri Lankan Tamil household, morning meals were always vibrant, brimming with spice and flavour.
“I really wanted to create an experience that takes simple spices and shows how they can elevate breakfast into something deeply satisfying and delicious,” she says.
Together they spent hours recipe-testing to ensure each dish worked at scale, with much of the menu drawing directly from Gaya’s upbringing. Coconut sambol, a staple of her childhood, is central.
“It wasn’t until I moved away from home that I realised not having those flavours every day felt like losing a part of who I am,” she reflects.
Beyond food, Gaya also wanted to bring “fun drinks for the non-caffeine-drinking girlies.”
Inspired by a childhood favourite, falooda—a rose-scented, milk-based drink layered with jelly, ice cream, vermicelli, basil seeds, and pistachio—became part of the offering.
“Whether it’s served at the temple, visiting someone’s home, or making it on a slow Sunday afternoon with my sister, falooda has always been part of my life,” she says.
Finally, a personal signature of hers—a miso sticky chai, blending the sweet warmth of chai with the gentle salty umami of miso. It’s also the item Christos admits he’s even considered keeping on as a mainstay.
"I think Gaya is quite protective over that little number but maybe there’s some wiggle room there,” Christos laughs.
For full disclosure, I've worked with Gaya at Urban List when she was an event producer but what makes this collaboration resonate is less about novelty and more about feeling. Here, food is a medium for connection—the idea is to order and stay a while with friends, swap stories and taste something that speaks to heritage. If Sydney’s dining scene in 2026 is defined by collaboration, Table At Gaya's x Angus is a perfect exemplar: a short, intentional window for a menu that, in Christos’ words, “doesn’t take itself too seriously but packs in a lot of flavour. Just come and get one of everything.”
Image credit: Jessica Best