Exploring the Darker Side of Marrickville on the Chocolate Ride

The Sydney Rides Festival wrapped up after we left for a New Zealand holiday, and we wish we didn’t have to wait so long for the next one! We already miss the plethora of bike friendly events occurring throughout the city, and look forward to participating in next year’s Spring Cycle and Light the City rides.

This year, we consciously planned to attend many of the events. I enjoyed catching up with our friend Sarah from Vélo-à-Porter at the Sydney Suits Ride, we feasted on pedal-powered smoothies, while testing every type of cargo bike we could find at Sydney Rides the Park. However, one of our favorite events proved to be the Marrickville Chocolate Ride.

Bike Marrickville BUG offers the Chocolate and Fine Foods ride on a semi-regular basis. During Sydney Rides, Sydney Cycleways dedicated a morning of the festival to 20 person tasting tours, and BIKESydney organized the ride leaders, sweeps, and other details. The tour covers about 13km, roughly 10 minutes pedaling 10 minutes eating, cruising through Marrickville and surrounds. The stops highlight an amazing selection of chocolates and fine foods, from local small businesses. While the brochure described it as “caloric neutral,” I certainly ate more than I burned! Not that I’m complaining.

If you want to give the ride a go yourself before next year – here are the 8 stops we made, in order. We left from the Petersham Post office (Audley and Fischer St) and it took us about 4 hours to complete the circuitous loop. Below we highlight some of our favourite treats and their specialities.

8 Delicious Stops on the Marrickville Chocolate Ride

TIM Products is a wholesale purveyor of delectable Greek treats. The shop opened in 1967 as a small cake shop. It is original Greek recipes tweaked for Australian ingredients, and they pride themselves on using the freshest domestic products. EZ, CZ, and I loved their almond shortbread and the honey and orange cookies. This sweet little hidden gem offers public retail product at wholesale prices.

Casa Del Desserts of Indulgence is another wholesaler open to the public. The shop specializes in custom cakes and gelato. They have almost any indulgence you might be looking for, and the smiles on everyone’s faces indicated the gelato hit the mark.

Feather and Bone is a specialty meat and poultry shop. If you are vegan or vegetarian, do not click that link. For omnivores, they have some incredibly high quality meat from thoughtfully raised animals. We plan to swing through next time we need something a little better than meat from the local Woolies.

Paesanella is a specialty cheese maker, with a cafe and a food emporium. Definitely a one stop shop for everything you need to complement that classic bottle of wine you are waiting to open. We had a sandwich from the cafe on a croissant, and the pastry was every bit as good as the mozzarella. They also make specialty pizzas!

Adora Hand Made Chocolates is a shop we passed by multiple times when riding along Cooks river. They serve incredible hot chocolate and great coffee, in addition to unique handmade chocolates. The best part is that you get a free chocolate with every coffee! We sampled the spicy cinnamon (white) chocolate and the dark chocolate covered orange slice. Both of them left us wanting more.

Candlelight Chocolates is a shop you would never notice, if you weren’t looking for it. However, once you’ve been there, you will certainly seek it out again. CZ immediately grabbed a bag of nougat, and EZ and I settled on the darkest chocolate bar they had. While we were a little disappointed by the fact that it was only 58% Cocoa, the amazing flavor shocked us.

Tella Balls Dessert Bar was our final stop, and decadence is their game. They have an amazing selection of desserts and gelato – especially of the chocolate hazelnut variety. If your sweet tooth starts screaming, they will definitely be able to satisfy.

Get the Most From Your Marrickville Chocolate Ride

We enjoyed the ride with Sydney cycleways and our 12 other companions! It’s always more comfortable to ride with a group leader and sweep so that we are not continually pulling over to double-check Google Maps and can have a little chat while riding.

If we did the ride again, we would lengthen it further with obligatory playground stops, and a proper lunch in the middle at Paesanella. However, we had a great time making new cycling friends, and Fiona was an excellent tour guide. She is a wealth of information and interesting facts about the neighborhood. Whether you slow it down to go on your own, or join in one of the future Bike Marrickville led rides, we now your trip through the darker side of Marrickville won’t disappoint.