Ryan Perry cut his teeth working for top chefs in storied, now-closed, Sydney kitchens like The Bridge Room and Momofuku Seibo. He was on the opening teams for Barangaroo’s fire-powered Woodcut, and the Hartsyard duo’s sustainably minded seafood restaurant Longshore. But when Bar Lettera opened last week – in the Citadines hotel in North Sydney – it was Perry in the kitchen’s hot seat. “All of the food on this menu is the food that I would want to eat if I was out at a restaurant,” the head chef tells Broadsheet. That’s the menu spanning lunch and dinner. And while that’s got a roll call of excellent options, Perry’s menu starts in the morning.
Whether you’re checking in or not, a brekkie at Lettera is a goodie. All the faves are there – eggs your way, banana bread, avo on toast – but with an elevated spin. The banana bread’s jazzed up with coconut, limoncello curd and a whiff of mascarpone. The avo is “deluxe”, courtesy of AP sourdough, scorched cherry toms and a smattering of hemp seeds. “Our mushroom toast [has] beautiful pine mushrooms coming down from the Blue Mountains, hand-picked.”
When it comes to the vibe, Perry’s clear: “It shouldn’t be considered as a hotel restaurant, it’s a restaurant in a hotel.” Semantics aside, the dining room is swish. Sydney-based designer Sophie Jordan’s on the fit-out, where rings of terracotta-hued curtains halo above diners’ heads. The art deco lighting is warm and the feel is welcoming, whether you take a spot at the bar, or a plush seat at a booth or table.
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SIGN UPThe later menu is a mash of Australian and Italian. “In a lot of ways it’s not a super Italian restaurant,” Perry says. “I reimagined very classic things, but I wanted to find my own way of interpreting them.” The starters bring a creamy, crunchy serve of burrata, carried by witlof, cucumber apple and a grating of bottarga. There’s granita-topped oysters and LP’s mortadella too, plus a glistening jigsaw of heirloom tomatoes with kombu.
Onto the small plates and plump tiger prawns (“the biggest I could get my hands on”) come swimming in a spicy, buttery sauce, while a riff on a fried favourite excites the chef. “You know, [every Italian restaurant’s] going to have a calamari fritti,” he says. “My way of touching on that is doing a salt and pepper Moreton Bay bug with XO sauce. It feels like its own thing.”
The pasta’s all fresh from Fabbrica and you’re sorted whether you need to dash-in-dash-out or meander through your meal. “We’ve designed a long lunch [and dinner]: have your antipasti, move to your entrees, have a pasta for the table then enjoy a rib eye or a pork cotoletta as your main.” Fabbrica’s fresh-egg rigatoni – served with a ragout of Wollemi duck, made silky with a Davidson’s plum gin – is the favourite after week one.
Bar Lettera is the newest on the north-of-the-bridge beat, but it’s joining a flurry of fun openings. There’s Poetica, the breezy 120-seater from the Loulou team just around the corner, and up the road there’s Ramen Auru and a bigger Yurippi. Plus, there’s a quartet of soon-to-come spots: Sol Bread & Wine, Genzo, Soluna and Una Providore.
Later this year, the opening of Sydney Metro’s Victoria Cross Station will get CBD locals north quick smart – and add Mary’s, Marrickville Pork Roll and Dopa to the fold.
Bar Lettera
88 Walker Street, North Sydney
Hours:
Daily 7am–10.30am, midday–2.30pm, 5pm–8.30pm
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