Frank’s Deli, which sits on Bronte Road in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has is run by a family-trio: Alek Jakubiak brings the coffee expertise, his sister Sammy Jakubiak had a stint on My Kitchen Rules, and her husband Ben Kelly worked for Fino Foods, importing specialty goods.
Combining their talents with a New York-deli-style venue, paying homage to the Jakubiak’s Polish heritage, and creating a menu with some of the best sandwiches in Sydney has led to crowds that willingly line up on any given Saturday.
"Simplicity is the thing that's key,” says Alek. “And there's nothing more simple than a sandwich. A few ingredients between a bit of bread…but when it's put together properly, it's a thing of beauty."
An example of this is their steak frites baguette, a heavily Instagrammed and mouthwatering creation that photographs almost as well as it eats.
Sammy was inspired by a spot she'd seen in Paris, wanted to try something "cool and French."
"In her true wizard fashion, she came in and knocked this thing out in like half an hour. We were like, what the hell? This is the best thing ever.
“It looks beautiful, but then you take a bite and you're like, holy — this is amazing."
Alek also acknowledges that without the right people around him, nothing would work, re-telling a story from the early days of Frank’s.
"It was probably like the second week in during COVID. We were getting absolutely slammed. People couldn't leave their area, and we were kind of the new kids on the block. Sandwiches were a big hit and we were just getting pumped. It was probably like 300 to 500 sandwiches a day.”
Ben and Alek stayed back to roll meatballs until 8pm. “We were rolling meatballs, probably 400 to 500 meatballs, and the oven died.
“We were just like, what do we do? We'd cooked two trays out of maybe like 70 trays of meatballs that we had to cook that night. And the oven was kaput.
We essentially had to get his sparky friend out. This is a three-phase thing, so you touch any little bit of it you're not supposed to, you'll die. And we basically had to jimmy the back off. A safety switch kept flicking on and off. So we were basically roasting off these meatballs, probably verging on death if we touched the wrong thing.
But I just remember the face that Ben had — he was literally about to be in tears. He was like, how, what are we going to do? We can't cook."
Like so many successful hospo venues, pushing through in tough situations is key -but that’s only possible with the right people. And, while working alongside his sister isn't always easy, it’s also an incredible asset.
"You can always tell each other how it is. As annoyed as you can get, we're still family at the end of the day. Nothing's ever going to take that away."
This philosophy extends beyond the founding trio, to the team in the back and the regulars out front.
“That's really the secret, if there is one. Do the basics right. Put love in it. And build a place people — customers and staff alike — want to keep coming back to.
"These are my friends. These are my people. This is the family. That's it."
"You spend eight, nine, ten hours a day with these people. They become your family.”
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