Overview
From the thriving food and drink hub Llankelly Place to the high-end boutiques of Macleay Street, Potts Point is an inner city suburb with lots of personality. If you're here in the day, it has a village-like community feel, where independent shop owners greet each other, and their customers, warmly and with pride. At night, it's lively with visitors to its well established bars and restaurants.
One of the charming things about the area is the number of long-standing small businesses. It's full of incredible bookshops, boutique stores and beloved eateries, which makes shopping here a special experience. We've teamed up with American Express to bring you a list of six retailers that are well worth seeking out. You can shop small for paperbacks, local coffee and fresh flowers here with your Amex Card.
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What’s better than one friendly florist? How about a team of talented flower arrangers working with the best fresh flowers from Sydney Flower Markets each week. Poho Flowers’ bright, lustrous style is a reflection of its vivacious creative team, that brings a personal touch to its bountiful arrangements flying out of the door every day.
The store’s same-day deliveries range from $85–320. Its style is bold and every bouquet — whether of native blooms or in-season peonies — makes an entrance wherever they’re delivered.
Image: Cassandra Hannagan
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When you’re looking for life-affirming coffee, head to the 20-seat cafe Gypsy Espresso. It’s the perfect place to settle in during a shopping spree, or when you want to grab a takeaway while you explore.
Gypsy is run by hospo veterans of Toby’s Estate fame, Will Smallbone and Mario Szucs. Its team is always intensely focused on making you the perfect brew, but for a real show ask for the old-school pour over, which is coffee theatre in motion.
The cafe also operates a coffee delivery service for all its single origin beans, brewed in Alexandria — a smart purchase that will make your mornings infinitely better while supporting true locals.
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Less than a ten-minute walk from Macleay Street, within Kings Cross, you’ll find Bayswater Fine Wines — a multi-level bottle shop with a 750-champagne flute chandelier.
Resident wine geek and store owner Stefano Moretti is ready to point you in the right direction for your wine selection, whether you’re after one of the store’s prized imports or a funky local gem. Bringing the wide world of wine to this little slice of harbourside paradise, Bayswater has an expansive range worth spending time with, especially for its rare and fine-aged bottles.
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According to its owners, Potts Point Bookshop is found in the ‘Paris-end’ of the inner city suburb. And the beautiful independent bookstore certainly makes you feel like you’ve entered a European pocket of Sydney, with its light-filled space and stacks upon stacks of fiction and non-fiction to gaze over.
The shop is filled with books of all kinds, from an impressive list of art and design prints to political memoirs and the latest paperbacks. The sheer volume here requires a dedicated team of experts, and you’re in good hands as 2020’s ABA Penguin Random House Young Bookseller of the Year, Simon McDonald, is here to guide you through whatever page-turner you’re after. Between them, the store’s staff has 50 years of book selling expertise to share. It also hosts author talks and readings from time to time.
Image: Kitti Gould
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It’s almost two decades since the Paradiso brothers opened up Fratelli Paradiso — the award-winning Italian restaurant and Potts Point institution. The Fratelli family has grown substantially since then, even taking up residence in Tokyo. Still the family always manages to make you feel like you’ve stumbled upon a local secret when you come to this Challis Avenue for lunch or dinner.
With relaxed yet flawless service and a small, fool-proof menu, Fratelli Paradiso remains at the top of its game, serving up whipped roe and bottarga pretzels as well as timeless crowd-pleasers like its lasagnetta — the all-time best takeaway meal if there ever was one.