Old Fitz, New Tricks: There’s a New Chef and Revamped Menu Coming to the Pub’s Upstairs Bistro Soon

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The Old Fitzroy in Woolloomooloo has stood on the corner of Dowling and Cathedral streets for more than 150 years. The Hot Listed spot needs little introduction. It’s had numerous custodians in its long life, and these days it’s under the care of Odd Culture group.

Downstairs, you’ll find punters eating pub classics in the outdoor dining area or convivial front bar, while the bistro upstairs has usually leaned away from pub fare. Now, with new head chef Ben Richards (ex-Bills, Ester, Ante) at the helm, The Old Fitz gets a new menu and kitchen in the refreshed bistro.

“I actually worked at the Old Fitz in 2019 under Nik Hill, so to be able to come back and put my own spin on the food here feels really personal,” Richards says. “What I learned with Nik really shaped the way I cook today. It’s a super humbling opportunity.”

The bistro space – that the team has renamed to Fitzroy Dining Room – will look familiar, with a minor tweak to the colour palette. A former prep room has been converted into an upstairs kitchen, relieving the pub kitchen downstairs of responsibility for the bistro menu. But the most significant change is Richards’s new menu, inspired by British pub food and French bistros.

“We’re taking those concepts and approaching them with a menu for each season,” he says. “So keeping everything super fresh, seasonal and suitable for whatever time of the year it is.”

Standouts include country pork terrine with pear mostarda and hot English mustard; spring lamb rump on a bed of fennel, peas and green goddess dressing; and market fish served with mussels, capers and preserved lemon.

“We’re going for a comforting feel with the menu. You have all the busyness and pub food downstairs, then you can come up here and have a meal that’s a bit more relaxed and intimate.”

Richards expects the king prawn-filled zucchini flowers with salsa rosa to be a hit, along with a classic English trifle with strawberry rhubarb, lemon butter and cardamom cake. “It’s exactly the sort of thing you want to eat in Sydney when the weather starts to warm up,” he says.

He’s also planning raw starters like bluefin tuna with seasonal citrus, basil and Aleppo pepper, and a beef carpaccio with kohlrabi remoulade, freshly grated horseradish and broadleaf rocket.

Richards says the dedicated bistro kitchen is a useful back-of-house initiative, but it won’t change how the Fitz feels on the surface.

“I think making sure we do a great job upstairs just gives people another reason to keep coming back,” he says. “Coming back means a lot to me. I want to build something upstairs that lasts and becomes a part of the great community that the pub already has.”

The Old Fitzroy’s new bistro opens on Thursday October 15.

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