Picture this: It’s a chilly Saturday night on Oxford Street, Sydney. You make your way to the infamous Universal club and after a round of wet pussy shots and a few bevvies, you find yourself outside craving a massive late-night feed.
OFC, with Sydney being Sydney, the options are limited to a meh kebab or a meh cheeseburger from Macca’s. As you weigh up the two options, the smell of BBQ pork and crispy pork skin makes its way to your nostrils. You soon find yourself stumbling towards Oxford Street’s late-night resto, Mr Crackles, where you treat your drunk self to a Peking duck roll or a pork crackle snack.
Unfortunately, nights like that will never happen again as Mr Crackles has quietly closed its doors for good since opening in Sydney back in 2018. Mr Crackles also had a store in Melbourne but unfortunately, that one has closed as well.
According to News.com.au, Mr Crackles owners Sam Horowitz and Carlos Justo shut down the delicious joint as business never returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“Costs of goods doubled and revenue is still down,” the pair said, per News.com.au.
“We relied [on] a lot of volume which hasn’t returned to normal after Covid. Friday nights never recovered, catering never went back to normal. The juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze anymore.”
Just last week, Mr Crackles shared a photo on its official Instagram account mentioning it was “open late all weekend” but if you try to access its official website, listed on the IG profile, it takes you to a dead page.
If you search the late-night fave on Google, it says it is “permanently closed.”
In even sadder news, Horowitz and Justo also shared a fried chicken restaurant business that was known as Thirsty Bird. The fried chicken joint was located in Sydney’s Potts Point and Newtown, but in early 2023 customers noticed the restaurants were “emptied out.”
When a person asked the Thirsty Bird IG page if it was “closed for good”, the IG account replied saying: “Yes we have.”
Mr Crackles holds a very special place in my heart, especially for their delicious rolls that have literally resurrected me during a cooked night out.
Sydney’s nightlife will never, ever be fixed. R.I.P, my fave late-night joint.
