Have you heard? We opened Eat at Billys back in March and have been seriously overwhelmed with the incredible response we’ve had from the public. We’ve been kinda quiet about it, we really wanted to find our groove before shouting it from the rooftops. We’re there (-:

Most wouldn’t know this but for many years now, it’s been Billy’s dream to open a super no frills, laid back eatery serving up just the kind of sandwiches he loves to eat. Ridiculously generous servings of delicious meats, fresh ingredients, home made sauces on soft white bread – just toasted on the inside. Exactly the kind of sandwiches that his wife Sarah is famous for whipping up for smoko for all of the butchers.

Covid, floods and everything in between really made things hard to divert enough time & energy away from Meat at Billy’s to get Eat up & running but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right? If there’s one thing Billy certainly has it’s determination. We finally got there.

Meat at Billy’s is located right next door to our Rosalie butcher shop. In fact, the site used to be our old butcher shop. A few years ago we moved the store into a newly renovated and much bigger space next door. We kept the old space knowing exactly what we were going to do with it in the future. Little did we know back then that sandwich shops would be ‘a thing’ in 2023.

While the number of other sandwich shops around town at the time really did make us wonder if we were doing the right thing, opening up another sandwich shop that is – Billy figured our offering would be different enough and good enough to lure people to Paddington. Well, that was the plan (-:

Eat at Billy’s is simple & straight forward. It’s a small sandwich shop (with a pretty big personality). 5 different sandwiches. That’s it. We’re not trying to be fancy. Billy just wanted to make down right tasty things that he himself would personally love to eat. As you would guess, the emphasis was always going to be on premium quality meat. We have access to some of the best meat in the country, if not the world. Why wouldn’t we be showing that off? 

We make everything fresh, daily. Almost everything is made in house from the pickled onions to the sauces. The bread – THE BREAD! We nearly didn’t open on time because we just couldn’t find the perfect bread!!! Again, we got there in the end… Our sangas come between two pieces of the freshest, super thick cut white bread in town. It truly is the perfect way to showcase the incredible tastes & textures of all the yummy things we put in between those two slices.

We make the kinds of sandwiches that you definitely need napkins for and may quite possibly need a little lie down afterwards.

We learned many moons ago that you just can’t be everything to everyone so we decided to just go hard and stick to what we know we do well. Damn good tasty meat sandwiches that you can only get from Monday to Friday, between 10am & 2pm (if we don’t sell out first – and we often do).

The main question we get asked is if we have gluten free options. We don’t. Our tiny sandwich shop with just 5 sandwiches on the menu is near impossible to make safely gluten free so it’s just not. It can’t be. Bread free options of the sandwiches are available but we can in no way say we are gluten free. 

The other main question we get is about when we’re going to start opening on the weekends. The plan is actually not to at all. Work/life balance is a priority for this business and we’ve chosen to stick to the Monday – Friday because we need to – for family, our sanity & gut feeling that this can be achieved. At least for now anyway.

Very early on in the piece when we were working out what we can and can’t do, what we do and don’t want to do, the phrase, ‘it is what it is’, was coined. It’s now the Eat at Billy’s catch phrase and I would say we now say it to each other at least once a day.  

Eat is fully licensed. Again, we’re not going for fancy but we do have some cracking beers on the menu from Happy Valley, Easy Times & Range Brewing. XXXX Gold even gets a run alongside our favourite Aussie Rosé from Jericho & a delicious Yarra Valley, Pinot Noir. Coke comes in a glass bottle because, it just has to. Looking back over this list reminds me that again, this is all just stuff that Billy loves to eat & drink.    

So if you’ve read this far and you’re feeling like Eat at Billy’s may be somewhere even remotely up your alley, we’d love to see you down here sometime soon.

In the meantime you can look at our current sandwich menu below & look through our instagram & tiktok. Tiktok is a bit lite on currently because… well… tiktok.  

THE SANDWICH MENU

THE BUTCHER
150g Cape Grim grass-fed sliced rump steak w caramelised onions, rocket & EAB cheese sauce – on thick cut white

THE SANDWICH MENU

THE BUTCHER
150g Cape Grim grass-fed sliced rump steak w caramelised onions, rocket & EAB cheese sauce – on thick cut white

Not a F*$&eN Rueben
150g legit wood smoked wagyu brisket pastrami w red cheddar, pickles & EAB signature sauce – on thick cut white – -> Double down & add another 150g pastrami $9

‘BIG PAULIE’ PORCHETTA
150g Berkshire, pork belly porchetta, crispy crackling, EAB salsa verde, pickled red onions, rocket & EAB confit garlic mayo – on thick cut white

THE REDNECK
200g+ Billy’s double fried free range chicken tenders w shredded iceberg & EAB confit garlic mayo, seasoned with a little special something – on thick cut white

GROW A PAIR
free range pork & pastrami meatballs in our smoked brisket bolognese, provolone, parmesan, salsa verde & EAB confit garlic mayo – on baguette