The fact that you can make yourself a sandwich almost any time you want has not stopped Sydneysiders from driving across town to try the latest one.

Locals are heading down south in droves. Not for the beaches, nor the national parks, but for the grilled cheese and BLTs.

In recent months, there’s been a salt and pepper sprinkling of new sandwich shops in the area. It started with Kosta’s in Rockdale, then spread to Self Raised Bread Shoppe in Carlton and Snack Shoppe in Bexley North, and now to Happy Alley in Rockdale.

Although, Happy Alley is not exactly new. It had been joyfully existing down a different alley since 2022. This month, the local favourite relaunched into a fresh site that’s nearly five times the size of the original.

An expanded kitchen has meant the team can now bake their own bread and pastries, while a larger dining room gives people more space to sit and scoff them.

It even comes with a new alley. A paved laneway adjacent to the shopfront has unofficially become the outdoor courtyard of the venue. A small grassy lawn, complete with park benches and sunny yellow umbrellas, offers the perfect place to sprawl out for a picnic that you don’t even have to pack yourself.

Many of the original sandwiches remain, including the ever-popular Alley Deli. Pink piles of salami, smoked beef and turkey come layered with lettuce, beetroot relish and American cheese, finished with generous slatherings of their house sauce – a tangy ranch-like dressing. The softness of the bread will bring back happy memories of schoolyard lunches. Not that your mum ever made you anything quite this good.

As for the Parmi Melt, it’s exactly what it sounds like. A pub lunch between two slices of bread. Hefty chicken schnitzel is topped with marinara sauce, salami and cheese to create a big meaty mouthful that really hits the spot.

The menu goes beyond the typical triangles to include Middle Eastern-inspired ka’ak, a seeded Lebanese ring, stuffed with sujuk, tomato and olives, or haloumi and za’atar.

Sharing double billing on the menu is a range of freshly baked cookies. Co-owner and head baker Ali Barakat owned a Mrs. Fields franchise and online baking business before getting into the cafe game.

Made in the New York style, these generous mounds are deliberately half-baked for a soft and doughy centre within. The choc chip, peanut butter and Nutella are always on the menu while the rest are shuffled up regularly. You might find a white chocolate and pistachio number, or a nut crunch cookie pocketed with lashings of peanut butter. Get a swirl of soft serve on the side for the ultimate morning tea treat.

If you have any room left, a glass display cabinet holds a pantheon of pastries, from fig and caramel kouign-amanns to lemon meringue croissants pumped with sweet-tart curd. And naturally, there’s coffee. The new house blend, Happy Brew, is guaranteed to put you in a good mood all day.