A little corner of Italy in Narraweena

The deli

Where Narraweena does its Italian shopping

Narraweena is a quiet suburb on the hill behind Dee Why, but it has always had a big Italian heart. Families from Calabria settled here in the years after the war, built homes, planted tomatoes and fig trees, and gave the suburb the nickname it still carries: the Haberfield of the Northern Beaches.

Rose's Continental Delicatessen grew up with that community. For decades it has been the place on McIntosh Road to buy the salami and the provolone, the good pasta and the biscuits for when the family visits, and to grab a strong coffee on the way to work.

A family business since 1995

Rose's opened on McIntosh Road in 1995, and the same family has run it for more than two decades. Today Maria, Matt and their team look after the counter, and plenty of the regulars have been coming in since they were kids sitting up on the bench.

For the younger generations like myself, as much as we are Italian, we are Australian.

That mix is the deli in a nutshell. Italian cold cuts and cheeses, Italian biscuits and pasta, served with an Aussie flat-white-and-a-chat at six in the morning.

A new home, the same deli

When the building at 91 McIntosh Road was redeveloped, Rose's moved into a brand new fit-out in the new shops and opened its doors again to the same faces. The counter is new; the salami hanging over it, and the welcome, are not.