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Mia Gammon owns Lovers Deli & Canteen with Jake Carter.

Bureaucratic parking battle pushes Perth cafe to brink of closure

After its parking was removed at the end of 2025, Lovers Deli & Canteen has faced a drop-off in customers who fear they will be fined for parking along the narrow Beaconsfield street.

  • Indigo Lemay-Conway

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Grill’d founder Simon Crowe has defended his company’s record after being mired in pay disputes and hit with a class action.

After more than a decade of pay disputes, Grill’d boss insists his staff come first

Simon Crowe believes he hasn’t been doing a good enough job talking up the merits of his burger chain, which has been dogged by persistent wage disputes.

  • Jessica Yun
Restaurants are now using AI to pick up the phone.

Hi, how may AI help you? Meet the new restaurant concierge picking up your calls

Australian eateries miss more than 25 million phone inquiries a year. Serial entrepreneur Stevan Premutico reckons his new start-up should answer the phone instead.

  • Jessica Yun
Our insatiable demand for protein has the food industry grappling with shortages and skyrocketing prices.

Whey protein is running out as food companies put it in everything

Our insatiable demand for protein has Big Food grappling with shortages and skyrocketing prices of whey protein.

  • Kristina Peterson and Ilena Peng
Penfolds is the benchmark of Australian wine. But the company behind it keeps struggling.

Penfolds pain: Why our top winemaker keeps getting it wrong

The history of stuff-ups, miscalculations and underachievement at Treasury Wine Estates could fill a book. Now the company has bravely come up with a new master plan.

  • Elizabeth Knight
As consumers become more body conscious, protein is being added to a dizzying range of food.

From protein Weet-Bix to protein coffee, food makers are cashing in on Australians’ body dreams

Protein water, protein cereal, protein popcorn and protein jelly: the recent flood of products boasting this macronutrient has astonished even those in the industry.

  • Jessica Yun
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Pan Xianhua with his self-proclaimed “worst-tasting” douzhi in all of Beijing.

This douzhi of a drink tastes like stinky feet and rotten milk. It’s taking Beijing by storm

It’s sour and smelly, but a traditional beverage made from fermented mung beans has gone viral among Beijing’s TikTok generation.

  • Lisa Visentin
SMH FIRST USE: The Unicorn Hotel on Oxford Street in Paddington is closed and under construction. Thursday, April 23, 2026. Photo: Audrey Richardson, The Sydney Morning Herald.

Landmark Sydney pub gutted without approval

Inside the heritage-listed hotel on Oxford Street, interiors have been demolished before Woollahra Council had even received the latest development application.

  • Cindy Yin
Farmers have said they cannot bear higher input costs alone.

Bread, milk and fresh veggies: Grocery inflation is creeping back

Australians have been warned there will be less fresh produce and higher prices as farmers slash their winter season planting.

  • Jessica Yun
Grill’d on Carlton’s Lygon Street in Melbourne on May 22, 2016.

Burger chain Grill’d plots ‘aggressive’ expansion despite mounting business costs

The fast-food chain plans to add 30 new stores in the next two years and 25 stores every year after that, despite its bottom line being affected by rising costs.

  • Jessica Yun