In early 2023, Chrissy Flanagan – former co-owner of Dulwich Hill’s Sausage Factory – enrolled in a pottery class to make boob mugs at an inner-west brewery. Newly single, she thought it might be a good place to socialise and make a friend. The night ended with Flanagan crying in her car.

“I’m pretty confident and outgoing, but people were there with their friends; they weren’t interested in talking to me,” she tells Broadsheet. “I was throwing myself at the teacher, the waiter, trying to make a connection. I was so glad when it was over. I thought, if you’re at risk of having a scary experience like this one, alone is better.”

Flanagan thought there must be other people looking to make friends, who were having terrible experiences like hers at the pottery class, staying home and feeling lonely.

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“Sydney has a huge social problem. If you didn’t go to high school or uni here, if you don’t work with other people, or you don’t have kids, it’s a massive barrier to new friendships. I can’t restructure Sydney, but maybe I can help people make some fucking friends.”

Her solution is Chaotic Social, an “aggressively orange” space on Stanmore Road where Flanagan hosts classes and events. The fit-out was a collaborative effort, and perhaps the first sign that she was onto something with her new business. Flanagan put a call-out to her Tiktok followers to join a working bee to help paint the space. She provided the pizzas and energy, and her followers came with muscle and the patience to cover every square centimetre of the walls, ceilings and exterior of the building in a shade that falls somewhere between tangerine and safety orange. On one wall is an orange trellis with a cluster of soft toys suspended on a diagonal gradient.

“They wanted to help, to be with others, and they had an amazing time and made friends. They even came to the soft launch together and I thought, ‘This is the whole fucking point!’”

A former co-owner of The Sausage Factory (earning her the moniker “Sausage Queen”) and long-time sausage-making instructor, Flanagan knows how to inject energy into a group of people. If you’ve ever seen her Tiktok, you’ll understand. In person and online she’s magnetic: fun, riotously hilarious and sweary, with a vulnerability that’s completely disarming. Her energy is hard to fathom, and you desperately want to see what she does next. This is the atmosphere she brought to The Sausage Factory, and she brings it to Chaotic Social in spades.

Classes run the gamut from Suggestive Floral Arranging to Creepy Doll-Making, Shit Macrame, Claymation and Stand-Up Comedy for Beginners. Aside from the Rowdy Sausage Class, Flanagan doesn’t teach – she leaves that to experts like artist Jess Harwood, comedian Cal Wilson and writer Rochelle Pickles. But Flanagan hosts every class, along with her constant companion, Poppy, an English cocker spaniel who’s a bit long in the tooth but has the spirit of a puppy.

People can come alone or in groups.

“If people come by themselves, I want them to know I’ve got them. And if you want to come in a group, don’t be a dick and ignore people you don’t know. You have to hang out with everyone. I’ve been really heartened to see that 95 per cent of bookings are people coming alone.”

In the run-up to Chaotic Social’s opening, Flanagan shared her excitement, fears, doubts, and an unstoppable flow of ideas on social media. On the day after her official opening night, she tells us she’s overwhelmed with happiness. “We were sold out. The response was incredible. One person cried telling me how much they needed this in their life.”

Chaotic Social
256 Stanmore Road, Petersham
0405 274 867

chaoticsocial.com
@chaoticsocial