Neighbourhood: Ainslie
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One of the best things about Canberra is its multitude of neighbourhoods – each with its own individual charm and attractions. And whether you’re looking to make that suburb your home or just explore its offerings, it’s always good to have an expert guide to show you around.
That’s where our Neighbourhood series comes in. In collaboration with our friends at HIVE, we’ll help you discover the soul of Canberra’s suburbs.
In Canberra’s inner, inner North, Ainslie stands as one of the city’s oldest – and now edgiest – suburbs. With tree-lined streets of heritage-listed cottages to larger newer properties dotting the foothills of Mount Ainslie, this vibrant suburb boasts a diverse population who relish their proximity to the CBD, access to nature, and tiny but thriving local shopping strip.
Sound like your kind of neighbourhood? Check out HIVE’s listings here.
SUBURB SNAPSHOT
Ainslie is a well-established, leafy suburb nestled between the city and Mount Ainslie. It has a mix of heritage homes and modern residences as families and professionals jostle for a spot in this popular suburb. With a population of just over 5,000 and a median age of 41, this suburb is undergoing major renewal and regeneration as older residents move out or on and younger families seek a foothold. Because of its prime location, Ainslie has become the blue-chip suburb, commanding a median house price of just under $1.5 million and reaching above the $3 million mark in recent weeks.
The strong community feel and vibrant local shopping centre add to its appeal. Founded in the 1920s and named after the first overseer of Duntroon Station, James Ainslie, the suburb is distinctive for its small weatherboard cottages which were built to house the builders and workmen of the burgeoning national capital.
Ainslie offers easy access to nature trails, bushwalking, and panoramic views from the mountain. It also boasts established parks, tree-lined streets, an Art Deco local primary school that has taught generations of locals, sporting ovals and a plethora of birds and wildlife who venture down from the mountain each day.
EAT
Edgar’s
Edgars, the corner pub everyone loves. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
Many have tried, but few can replicate Edgar’s (1 Edgar Street), which is arguably the most authentic corner pub in Canberra. Constantly packed, humming with sports, trivia and live music and offering hearty meals, Edgars is a relaxed place to sit and stay.
With ample covered outdoor seating and a busy coffee bar as well as the inside main bar, here’s a place for kids, dogs and sports lovers alike. Offering the cool stuff, like canned fresh coffees, Karaage chicken, and eggplant and sweet potato tagine with chickpeas, and more conventional pub staples like chicken schnitty, damn fine steaks, and fish and chips, this is a place you can cover all bases (just as long as you book a table well in advance).
The Inn
Above the pub with suitably elevated food. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
Located directly upstairs in what was formerly a house of ill-repute, Canberra hospitality guru Frank Condi has created a more elevated spot than Edgars downstairs (he owns both as well as Mama Dough next door). The Inn (Level 1, I Edgar Street) is a beautiful dining room serving fine food.
Making good use of its Asado Grill, it ranks among the city’s top restaurants, serving everything from Venison skewers, to Peri Peri spatchcock and an iconic 700g Icon XB MB6-7 rump. There is plenty for the vegetarians too, from the wood roast cauliflower, capers, brown butter to the vegetable dumplings with, soy, sesame, wakame, and beetroot skewers with buckwheat and molasses.
This is definitely a statement restaurant but it has a warmth and relaxed vibe ensuring every meal is memorable.
Wakefield’s Bar and Wine
Wakefield’s for all the best retro bar vibes. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
This hidden gem (Level 1, Edgar Street) offers some of the most spectacular views of Mount Ainslie, the tree-tops and rooves of the inner north and across to Black Mountain tower (seriously you need to see it to believe it). It gets our vote for coolest vintage hangout for day drinking and sweetest little cocktail bar. Pick a high table under cover in the open air void to take in the sunset over the blossom trees, or hang a right and move down into a dark and moody lair where a low sofa and a cocktail awaits. You can order food from downstairs and make a night of it.
Mama Dough
A long skinny corridor of pizza perfection. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
This Hell’s Kitchen-style pizza joint (2 Wakefield Gardens) is the final part of Frank Condi’s Ainslie vision – a blink-and-you-might-miss-it doorway leading down a narrow walk to a giant imported Forno Bravo woodfired pizza oven. Pumping out authentic Italian pizzas, Mama Dough has a few spots outside to pull up a seat and enjoy the caramelised onion pizza with goat’s cheese and hot honey, or the sausage and potato pizza with fior di latte and rosemary. These pizzas have beautiful crusty dough edges that won’t be left on the plate. Just save room for the limoncello tiramisu with white chocolate and almond crumb.
Pilot
Small restaurant, huge reputation. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
Pilot (1 Wakefield Gardens) is a tiny restaurant with a huge reputation. Consistently ranked among the city’s best, its owners Dash Rumble and Ross McQuinn, along with chef Mal Hanslow, have earned plaudits from food critics around the nation with Gourmet Traveller describing this 30-seater as “a quietly brilliant fine diner”.
Offering a distinctly seasonal dining experience, be prepared to be surprised (in a good way) by dishes such as duck rissoles in broth with juniper, orange and riberry, or a fruit salad of Ramarro tomatoes, peach and marigold. The retro décor is too cool for school, as is the play list.
Breizh Café
Bringing the time-honoured culinary traditions of Brittany to Canberra, this French café (15 Edgar Street) is the place where local crepe-lovers go on a Saturday to order up big.
From savoury delights such as the mushroom galette (all the galettes are gluten-free FYI) with Gruyère and potatoes sauteed in parsley and garlic butter, to a sweet treat of crepes with sugar and Breton butter, there is a reason this place is always busy around brunchtime. We’d also like to shout out the spicy hot chocolate which maybe just the kick-start you need on a frosty winter’s morning.
Ainslie Bakehouse
Selling the stuff of life. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
The Ainslie Bakehouse (5 Edgar Street) is another place you might need to queue. An independent farm-gate-style bakery run by husband and wife team Baden and Kaylee Burke, the preservative and additive-free sourdough loaves are fermented between 24-36 hours. It is a product favoured by a number of local restaurants, who proudly choose it over bigger brands.
With a busy coffee bar, the Bakehouse also offers a range of popular pies, pre-made and hefty sandwiches and sweet snacks to grab and go. Just don’t expect those Italian sausage rolls with their flaky pastry to be waiting long once they are out of the oven and stacked in the cabinet.
Mt Ainslie Canteen
Every suburban shopping strip needs a burger joint. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
Do you like your takeaway a little bit high-brow? Mt Ainslie Canteen (2/5 Edgar Street) pumps out fresh juices and gelato work alongside the fish and chips and an extensive burger menu makes this a fun and retro place to pull up a stool when the hunger really kicks in.
From the Haloumi Stack featuring grilled haloumi, bacon, egg, avocado, spinach and aoli, to the Tradies Roll of Schnitzel, cheese and gravy, they have something for all tastebuds.
PLAY
Ainslie Laundrette
Bread, milk, and….? Ainslie shops also has a place to buy designer Voluspa candles (at the Laundrette), Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
Is doing the laundry really play? It is when you’re outsourcing it to the Ainslie Laundrette (3 Edgar Street). With a bank of designer laundry products and Voluspa candles for sale as you walk in the door, here is a place which smells fresh and exactly like laundry should.
Whether you’re after dry cleaning, repairs or just someone to run your big items through their massive machines and dry them in a jiffy, this place has got you.
Aesthetic Wellness
When you take skincare seriously. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
This cosmetic, skin and wellness centre ( Level 1, 5 Edgar Street) is a new addition to the Ainslie shops, promising facials with a bit of oomph. Whether you’re after anti-wrinkle treatments, fuller lips or a skin-care regime based on the latest science, this nurse-led team is located up a long blond wood staircase in an a Mediterranean-themed treatment oasis.
Thorson Photography
Amanda Thorsen (13b Edgar Street) has produced a portfolio of HerCanberra professional headshots (including the one attached to this very story) so our team can vouch that photographer Amanda is a delight to be photographed by. Taking the nerves out of the process, her beautiful studio upstairs above the supermarket feels like a boogie home, and she will have you distracted and smiling in no time at all.
Amanda has a way with young subjects as well as women wanting to reclaim their own form in boudoir shots, leading her to declare that she is an expert in capturing “Weddings, families, babies and butts”. Indeed.
Gallery Q
Q Gallery. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
A newish addition to the strip, this is an independent little gallery (13a Edgar Street) displaying a variety of art styles in rotating exhibitions and available for sale. The large central table can become the centre of much youthful artistic endeavour during crafty session for youngsters, with art classes running after school and on weekends.
A community creative hub, you can pop in for a squiz at new works, or maybe sign up for an art class such as the Mount Ainslie En Plein Air six-week course. There is always lots happening here.
Ainslie IGA
My favourite place in the entire world – the Ainslie Cheese Aisle. Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
Have you been scanning this article wondering when we were going to get to the Ainslie IGA (9/11 Edgar Street)? Well, we’ve arrived.
This place can justifiably lay claim to being Canberra’s original destination supermarket. Owned by the Xyrakis family since the mid-60s and still run by this industrious and hard-working multi-generational team, the Ainslie IGA is the beating heart of the suburb.
With a cheese aisle filled to overflowing with imported and Australian artisanal diary products that have spawned a thousand Instagram shots, this is a supermarket that specialises in local produce, vegan goods, local fresh baked breads, sweet treats and chocolates, organic milk, freshly squeezed juices and has an award-winning deli section that pumps out everything from fresh soups to salads, cooked meats and roasted vegetables.
Be prepared to stop and chat with the locals (in particular Manuel and his nephews Dimitri and Nick) and find yourself inspired to cook by a fresh produce section that gives farmer’s markets a run for their money. We never leave without at least one Truffled brie, a tub of their award-winning hummus and a bottle of full cream organic Tilba milk on tap.
Next door you will find the same passionate dedication at the Ainslie Cellars (7 Edgar Street) which is run by Keith (another of Manuel’s nephews) and his wife Kate. With an extraordinary number of local, national and international wines, beers and spirits in stock, the cellars hold regular tastings for enjoyment (and educational) purposes. This is a safe space to ask staff what they recommend if you’re keen to try something new.
The Ainslie Book Fridge
If you are hanging in the neighbourhood, your shopping done, your friendly conversations concluded and you’re at a loose end, wander down to the Laundrette end of the shops and take a look in the fridge for your next literary conquest. OK, the fridge is defunct and used as a community book library for those of you who are perplexed. Take a book or leave a book, it doesn’t matter, just as long as you’re reading and soaking up those good Ainslie community vibes.
Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative.
*Disclaimer. As an Ainslie local, you will have to forgive my obvious affection for this little suburban strip. It is my happy place, but the rest of Canberra is entirely welcome to visit.
Photography by Andrew Ly, Nineteen Creative
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17 Cowper Street, Ainslie
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See the full listing here.
79 Hannan Crescent, Ainslie
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805/352 Northbourne Avenue, Dickson
Penthouse living with Telstra Tower views. This sophisticated three-bedroom apartment crowns level 8 of the award-winning Kashmir development. Featuring a gourmet kitchen with stone benchtops, spacious balcony with uninterrupted city views, and Darren Palmer’s interior design throughout. Premium finishes include double glazing, engineered timber floors, and rooftop entertainment facilities complete this executive lifestyle package.
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