Morning espresso, midnight martinis: Odd Culture turns Italian at new CBD restaurant

Odd Culture has opened a day-to-night neighbourhood osteria in the middle of the CBD, adding to the growing number of Italian restaurants in Sydney.

Bar Bruno is the hospitality group’s first foray into Italian cuisine, following the success of venues such as Pleasure Club (Newtown) and The Old Fitzroy Hotel (Woolloomooloo). They’ve approached it with characteristic individuality: spritzes flavoured with radicchio, focaccia bread made with Peroni lager yeast, and warming bowls of mussels with oversized white beans and a gentle kick of ’nduja butter.

It’s the kind of place where diners can come and go throughout the day, ordering a Genovese Coffee espresso with house-made orange anise biscotti from 10am; returning for a burger and shoestring fries in the afternoon; then marking an early knock-off with $13 cocktails and a few snacks (crumbed olives, prawn fritti) for $8 to $10 during its aperitivo “hour” (3pm to 5pm).

Afterwards, there’s also the Razz Room, a moody disco-inspired bar Odd Culture opened on the lower floor in April.

The group’s chief executive, Rebecca Lines, said she wanted Bar Bruno to become a social, welcoming place with widespread appeal. To this end, there are window-facing booths, long banquet seating and exposed brick walls.

“It was really important that the food followed suit in the sense that it’s not overworked, it’s not trying too hard, it’s just about the produce, simplicity and familiarity,” she said.

“We’re not trying to put something on a plate that somebody doesn’t understand, and I think Italian is one cuisine people are very familiar with.”

It’s a recurring theme in Sydney dining, where Italian cuisine has proven popular with budget-conscious diners and restaurateurs over the past year. Since September, high-profile pivots towards Italian have included Gran Torino (formerly Song Bird) in Double Bay, Osteria Luna (formerly Tiva) in the CBD, and Vitelli’s Upstairs (formerly Baptist Street Rec Club) in Redfern.

At Bar Bruno, Odd Culture’s head of restaurants Mikey Hamilton and precinct head chef Dylan Bennett created a menu with an American-Italian lean. Beyond the bowls of rigatoni with osso buco ragu ($34) and the ceci e vongole ($34), there’s a signature burger with provolone cheese, pickles and onion rings ($28); an eggplant parmigiana with vodka sauce and smoked mozzarella ($24); and a caesar salad with white anchovies and chilli pangrattato ($24).

“We wanted [dishes that were] nice and warming for the winter,” Hamilton said. “Especially the pastas, they’ve almost got to be like a hug in a bowl, like something you want to come in and eat two or three times a week.”

The drinks list is limited to 100 predominantly Italian and Australian wines, but includes a house-made vermouth, pine nut Old Fashioned, and a grasshopper digestif with gelato supplied by Mapo.

Bar Bruno was in the works for more than two years, pre-dating Lines’ November 2024 appointment. She formerly worked as the business director at the now-closed restaurants Redbird (Redfern) and Tequila Daisy (Barangaroo) that she co-owned with fellow restaurateur Hamish Ingham.

Lines said the space (formerly home to the Prince of York) appealed to group co-founder James Thorpe for its historic-industrial charm. It’s a far cry from where Odd Culture began, as a craft beer and natural wine bar at Darlinghurst’s Taphouse in 2018, but Lines has put a big emphasis on hospitality, hoping Bar Bruno can maintain the community feel Odd Culture venues have become known for.

“How do we continue to do what we do well, and become even better at it?” she said. “That’s our focus, to become a place that’s known for a high standard of service and a sense of community.”