Find your Niche at the expanded Fyshwick Markets

Posted on 26 July, 2018

If doing your weekly shop at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets feels like visiting family, then get ready—a whole new batch of relatives has arrived!

The just-opened Niche Markets bring an entirely new wing of shopping opportunities to the familiar U-shaped market we have loved for more than 50 years. At the front left-hand side as you drive in, the space has been opened up to provide a bustling thoroughfare to an interesting array of up to 40 new stores.

Everything from fashion to jewellery and homewares will be available. And a whole stack of new shops are still in the process of setting up in coming weeks. But first, coffee.

May your experience of Niche be an alert one! Visit Marco and his delightful family from Piccolo Market Coffee. He is cupping Lonsdale Street Roaster beans and a tiny but delicious sample of sweet treats. Think a true market laneway coffee pit stop.

It’s a little way off yet, but sisters Carolyn and Andrea Sewell, are hoping to establish their long-awaited Capital Cat Café. While they await the necessary approvals, they are setting up a shop of entirely cat-themed merchandise. And they are hoping to bring in one or two fluffy friends for company over the weekend trading hours.

Over at The Jewel in the Crown, Pam Todd is offering a reasonably priced array of women’s accessories—scarves, handbags, belts and more. Next door, Munchkin and Co promise to make even the smallest members of the family fashionable.

Meanwhile, did you know Canberra has a celebrity florist in its midst?

Crystal Jung was living in Korea when she spotted a floral table arrangement by LA celebrity floral stylist Kevin Lee on the internet. She had an epiphany that flowers were what she wanted to spend the rest of her life arranging. And in a feat of determination, she got herself to LA, looked up Kevin Lee and convinced him to take her on to master the floral arts. Twelve years in the business and Crystal can count arranging flowers for the Oscars on her CV. True story!

These days, she is loving living in Australia and enjoys a quieter pace in Canberra. Teaming up with Ken Chau, of Weston Creek’s famed Orient Kitchen, the pair have set their sights on providing original floral arrangements, hand-chosen to match vases brought in by customers, as well as an interesting selection of indoor plants in their new store Urban Jungle.

And if wandering around all the new stalls is making you hungry. We cannot recommend Dean Han’s Umami highly enough.

The Korean-born chef, whose pedigree in Canberra includes working at Chairman and Yip and Tipsy Bull, has set up a pop-up ramen noodle store outside Plonk while his fit out is completed. Trade has been extremely good and he promises the new store will feature a wide array of Japanese cuisine—from sushi to all manner of noodle and rice dishes.

Krofne Donuts.

The vibe on Niche is open and warehousey and it is worth exploring all the nooks and crannies as all new stallholders establish themselves. There is plenty more to come, but it’s already filling up with some friendly new faces you will no doubt learn to recognise.

You just better get up extra early next time you visit to make sure you can squeeze it all in.

Photography: GH Nutrition