Sydney has a new hospo team: Sophia Richardson and Wez Smeda-Healy, a couple who met working at a Melbourne cafe, fell in love and are now opening Kisa, a little bar in a heritage-listed Glebe terrace. The high-ceilinged corner spot is already licked in butter-yellow paint inside. There’s a fireplace too, and room for 50, plus six seats on the street outside. On the way is a stainless-steel bar and banquettes in production with the pair in the final push before opening. “It’s our first
time doing this, and my first time project managing, so it’s been a steep learning curve,” says Richardson. “But it’s been fun to see it all coming together. Kisa is going to be a small neighbourhood bar, which is going to be a representation of Wez and I – the spaces we love, the spaces we look for. A welcoming, safe, warm and inviting environment for everyone.” The love the two have for the hospitality scene and their incoming venue is clear from the top,
but an appreciation and celebration of women is a driving force, too. “My background is Eastern European,” says Richardson. “I’ve got some Polish blood, some Russian blood, on my mum’s side of the family. And that side of the family is super matriarchal with my baba, who’s my grandma. Growing up it was all about food and connection and women and, lo and behold, that has shaped me into loving women, food and connection.” The name kisa translates to “kitty” in Russian, a nickname often
used for your lover or partner. This influence continues through the menu. Smeda-Healy’s drinks list includes a jazzed-up shandy – pilsner, Becherovka (a cinnamon-y digestif from the Czech Republic) and lemon cordial meeting vodka – but will lean more understated than the drinks at many of the bars he’s worked previously (Bar Planet, Deadwax, The Waratah, Piccolo, and Melbourne’s Borsch, Vodka & Tears). “Finally getting to write my own venue and show off my skills, it’s definitely been a fun little challenge,” he says. “Nothing
too fancy – we’re not trying to blow people’s minds. Just tasty drinks that are classic, accessible and smashable.” The concise wine offering will be broadly European, with local bottles too. “It all, in my mind, links up to you’re having a drink in the afternoon sun,” says Richardson. “You’ve got your little spritz or your little glass of wine, and maybe you just want to split a little cake with your girly-wirlies, you know? It’s all really cutesy and romantic – I’m just like,
I want to go there! That’s what we’re trying to build.” Kisa is the realisation of Richardson’s long-held dream of owning her own venue, with her lifelong love of baking in the mix too. Her bakes will support Kisa’s small, snacky food menu. “The offering is going to be pretty limited – like, ‘what did Sophia bake today?’ I love tarts, I love fruit, crumbly cakes, nutty things. Like, what am I going to turn up with in my hands?” Kisa is another indie venue
for Glebe’s dining scene, which is in the middle of a comeback powered by young and first-time venue owners. “I never really saw myself having the opportunity to have a business of my own, but then Sophia came into the picture and had all these ideas and the motivation to pull it off. I was just all-in,” says Smeda-Healy. “Wez is my ‘yes girl’,” laughs Richardson. “He’s like, ‘Yes girl, yes girl!’” Kisa is expected to open at Shop 1, 198–206 St Johns Road, Glebe,
in winter 2026. @kisa.sydney
Kisa, Sophia Richardson, Wez Smeda-Healy, Glebe, St Johns Road, Sydney bars, romance drinks, Becherovka, shandy, Polish Russian heritage, baking, winter 2026