Harry Ate All The Pies

Who ate all the pies? This is a question with too many answers. Harry, however, is the guy who made all the pies (in Sydney anyway). Harry’s Café De Wheels is a Sydney icon and has been serving up hot dogs and the famous ‘Tiger Pie’ for 70 plus years.

The café is little more than a pie van next to the Garden Island Naval Base in Woolloomooloo, but it’s listed with the National Trust. In the BK (Before Kebabs) era of 1938, Harry ‘Tiger’ Edwards started serving ‘pie n’ peas’ and crumbed sausage from a van at this spot. The late night grub became popular with all walks of Sydney life from sailors and soldiers, to cabbies, starlets, streetwalkers and coppers alike.

The ‘De Wheels’ part of the name comes from a time when the council said that mobile food vans needed to move at least 12 inches everyday. Harry complied, until his wheels were oddly stolen and his position became more permanent.

The Tiger Pie is Harry’s most famous dish and the house special. It’s a chunky beef pie served with mushy peas, mash & gravy for $6.

Notable Harry’s customers include: Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Pamela Anderson, Sir Richard Branson, Jerry Lewis, Bill Clinton and a list of celebrity chefs including my favourite … Harland ‘The Colonel’ Sanders.

It’s always the best place to finish your Kings Cross night at ridiculous o’clock. The cabbies all hang around for a feed and you might even catch Harry’s next door neighbour Russell Crowe devouring a late night dog’s eye with dead horse.