Located at 4 Bridge Street, the new venue is yet to be named but the concept is locked down. Inspired by their travels in northern Italy, owners James Bradey and Warren Burns are bringing an Italian steak restaurant to Sydney.
“A lot of the restaurants we went to, they would carry around portions of meat and show it to you, and ask, ‘how hungry are you?’” says Bradey. “They’d scrawl the order on the table. We want to open it up so people can choose how hungry they are, portion it in front of them, and have a bit of theatricality to it.”
There will be three spaces to the venue, they say. The entrance to the venue will be from Dalley street, the back laneway of the property, and you’ll descend a staircase to the basement. The first space you enter is a small bar.
“A real classic, Italian style cocktail bar,” says Bradey.
“From a drinks perspective, we really want to focus on two things: customer service — being attentive, chatty, professional; and perfection — not searching for perfection, but just making sure that the drink that they’re getting is as shit hot as we can make it,” he says.
The next space is the steak restaurant — where you’ll be served steak Florentine — which will have a discreet entrance opening on to a butcher’s block in the middle of the room and an open kitchen. Once you’re at the table, they’ll bring the meat around and ask you how want it, and how much.
You’ll head to the third space — the wine shop — at the back of the restaurant to select your vino for the meal.
“Essentially it’s a bar and restaurant that channels that Italian feel and way of service, not just in the decor and the offering, but in an Italian attitude,” says the group’s Kim McDiarmid. “It’s polite, but you want for nothing.”
Expect wine served in simple tumblers, and Martini’s in small frozen shot glass style tumblers that are replaced once the glass warms up.
The yet to be named venue is set to open in May this year.