How Alfresco Dining Came
to Australia

Sydney in 1958 had one of the best climates in the world and almost nowhere to enjoy it over a meal. The city's restaurants were almost entirely indoors. Eating outside was something that happened at picnics and beach barbecues, not at a proper establishment. The idea of a restaurant putting tables on the footpath and inviting people to sit in the open air was, at the time, genuinely radical.

One man saw this differently. His name was John Schiffer — Jancsi, as he was affectionately known to his community.

A European Eye on an Australian City

John had grown up in Hungary, where café culture was woven into the fabric of daily life. In Budapest, the great coffee houses were as much social institutions as places to eat and drink. Tables spilled onto pavements. People watched the street. The boundary between inside and outside was porous and the better for it.

When he arrived in Sydney and found his way to Double Bay, he looked at Knox Street and saw what was missing. A beautiful harbour city, warm for most of the year, and almost nobody eating outside. The ingredients for something new were right in front of him.

"In Europe, you ate outside because the weather allowed it and the culture demanded it. In Sydney, the weather was even better. There was no good reason not to."

In 1958, John opened 21 Espresso at 21 Knox Street. He put tables on the alfresco terrace and opened the doors. It is widely recognised as the first alfresco cafe in Australia.

Why It Took Someone from Outside to See It

It is a familiar pattern in food history. The person who introduces something transformative to a culture is often someone who arrives from elsewhere, with a different set of assumptions about what is normal and what is possible.

Post war Australian dining culture was conservative in ways that are hard to fully appreciate today. Licensing laws were restrictive. Menus were limited. The idea that eating could be a leisurely, social, outdoor experience was not widely held. Most establishments treated dining as functional rather than pleasurable.

The wave of European migrants who arrived in Australia through the 1950s brought a completely different relationship with food. For Italians, Greeks, and Hungarians alike, eating was a central act of social life. The table was where community happened. And tables, when the weather permitted, belonged outside.

John Schiffer was simply one of the first to act on this instinct, and Knox Street turned out to be the right place at exactly the right moment.

What Changed and What Stayed

The impact of that decision in 1958 is difficult to overstate when you look at Sydney today. Alfresco dining is now so embedded in the city's culture that it is hard to imagine it was ever absent. Virtually every cafe and restaurant of note has outdoor seating. The footpaths of Paddington, Surry Hills, Potts Point, and Double Bay are lined with tables from morning to night. It is simply how Sydney eats.

The culture John helped create has long since outgrown the single restaurant on Knox Street. But that restaurant is still there. The terrace that started it all is still open. The tables are still outside.

When you sit on the alfresco terrace at 21 Espresso and watch Double Bay go past, you are sitting in the place where that particular idea began. There is something worth pausing on in that.

Alfresco Dining at 21 Today

The covered outdoor terrace at 21 Knox Street remains one of the best spots to eat in the eastern suburbs. It is shaded, comfortable, and open seven days. It is also dog friendly, making it one of the few restaurants in Double Bay where the whole family — including the dog — is genuinely welcome.

The food served there is not dramatically different from what John was serving in 1958. The menu has grown and evolved, but the core is the same. Honest European cooking. Generous portions. The kind of food that rewards sitting outside with no particular hurry to be anywhere else.

Over 67 years on from that first table on Knox Street, it is still a very good place to be.