A life of sausages was not exactly what Chrissy Flanagan first envisioned when she began her career. “I actually spent the first 12 years of my working life in government, as a media advisor to politicians and later in community engagement on transport projects, so this is definitely a stark contrast!” she explains.

But a penchant for making craft food in her spare time led her down a path to meat. “The sausages happened after I had been doing a lot of food craft in my spare time, pickling, jams, curing hams. I was making a lot of cheeses, and ageing them in my partner Jim’s music studio, which wasn’t strictly delightful in the Australian summer…so Jim gave me an ultimatum: if I was going to continue with the food craft, could it please be beer or sausages? As Sydney is well catered to for beer, I turned my hand to sausages.” A talent which she also largely puts down to the internet, having learnt to twist sausages from YouTube.

This career change saw Sydney welcome a sausage queen, with Chrissy now the owner of butcher’s Chrissy’s Cuts, as well as a foodie first in the form of an accompanying sausage cellar door called The Sausage Factory. Jim is now the chef at the new bistro/bar and remains recipe developer for Chrissy’s Cuts sausages, which remain beloved to some of the most renowned foodies in the harbour city.

It’s these industry fans that inspired Chrissy to launch her own eatery. “One of my brewer mates says that the beer should never taste better anywhere than it does in the brewery, and it’s the same way for sausages. We want them to be served up in the best way we know how, just metres from where they’re twisted. It started when we were making bespoke sausages for chefs include Warren Turnbull at Chur, David Tsirekas at 1821 and Somer Sivigliou at Anason, and seeing how they were serving the sausages up.”

Now with a liquor license pending, it seems that Chrissy’s dream to serve sausages as fresh as possible may become realised. “The concept is getting the sausages straight from the sauce and, once the license passes, washing it down with a cold Sausage Queen Gateway Ale, which is a beer we’re doing with Willie the Boatman,” she continues. So what can punters expect? Gourmet sausages including a pork shoulder Nuremberg rostbratwurst with Willie the Boatman ‘Rachel Cider’, lamb shoulder, sumac and mint, as well as a camel pastourma, among other offerings.

The Sausage Factory opens June 8 and will be open Thursday to Sunday 6-10pm every week. While the liquor licence is pending,t guests are invited to BYO from home, or get a takeaway from the local bottle shop.