To dismiss Station Street in Fairfield as just a locals’ strip or a traffic thoroughfare is to deny the deliciousness it has to offer. It’s got A-plus chicken burgs, upmarket Indian and Lebanese, and a recent injection of fresh energy.
When it comes to dining out, Fairfield – six kilometres north-east of the CBD – has long lived in the shadows of neighbouring suburbs. It doesn’t have the standard-setting hatted restaurants of Kew, or the once “coolest street in the world” claim to fame of High Street, stretching north from nearby Northcote.
Fairfield’s main drag, Station Street, is often overlooked as somewhat of a thoroughfare, a vein connecting the north and the east. But what is it really? A casual dining cornucopia, bolstered by a brigade of new openings, that deserves more attention.
By no means is it undiscovered, though. “It’s crawling with people, but it’s more of a locals’ strip versus a destination,” says Lily Stuckings, who chose it for her second Gelato Papa location in late 2020, attracted by the “old-school village vibe”. “It’s high quality, though,” she says of the food offering. “Not like it’s been left behind in the ’90s.”
Publican Daniel El-Fahkri had seen many seasons of Station Street before he bought the Grandview Hotel at the Heidelberg Road intersection in 2000. “I grew up on this strip,” he says. His first job in the late ’60s was delivering for a chemist, for 25 cents an hour.
