Leichhardt legend Grappa to take over iconic former Rockpool site

Two of Sydney’s most storied dining rooms are finally waking up. In a bold double-header for 2026, the original Rockpool in The Rocks and its grand Bridge Street successor are being reborn as ambitious Italian destinations.

A cool $8 million is being splashed at 11 Bridge Street, in the heritage-listed Burns Philp Building, where Vito’s will open in August with former Carbone Hong Kong chef de cuisine (and 2011 The Age Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year) Michael Fox in its kitchen.

At The Rocks, an offshoot from Leichhardt’s Grappa will launch mid-April after a two-year project to reboot the original Rockpool site.

Hospitality group Sunday Co., which operates CBD venues Morrison’s and Whalebridge, has snapped up 11 Bridge Street, where Perry relocated the Rockpool fine diner in 2013, before replacing it with Eleven Bridge a few years later. It was also home to Perry’s short-lived Jade Temple.

“I’ve loved that site forever,” says Brett Sergeant, managing director of Sunday Co., of the decision to nab the sprawling restaurant space, which has sat mostly idle for several years.

Sergeant says they’ll respect its heritage-listed marble and wrought-iron bones, while adding glamour beneath its six-metre ceiling. Custom lanterns are being made in London, the glass for the rosette chandeliers is being hand-blown in Venice, and a local leadlight specialist will craft three-metre-high coloured glass panels. Vito’s will also splash $2 million on joinery.

“We want an old-school sense of grandeur when you walk in,” says Sergeant. While he concedes it might be seen as a risky investment in a tricky market, Sergeant hopes the meticulous refit “says we’re here for 25 years”.

Inspired by the “great dining rooms of mid-century New York”, the 170-seat restaurant and bar takes culinary cues from American-Italian cooking. Fox is already testing menus.

“He has a great scallop and prawn agnolotti and a scampi crudo,” says Sergeant. They are working on a signature single meatball starter; New York pizza will be available after 10.30pm.

With Vito’s also set to offer a large “beef program”, the restaurant will join other new arrivals in Sydney that juggle Italian and American influences, such as Melbourne import Grill Americano, which opened last November at Chifley Square.

Meanwhile, at Grappa at The Rocks, restaurateur Charlie Colosi says the menu will be more traditional Italian, with signatures transplanted from the original Grappa restaurant, which opened in 1999 and continues to operate in Leichhardt. They’ll also introduce a few new dishes, such as snapper in rock salt.

Colosi and his wife, Virginie, have secured 107-109 George Street – a site so steeped in Sydney’s culinary history that it deserves its own blue plaque.

Home to the legendary Rockpool from 1989 to 2014, and later a training ground for William Blue College, the space is now undergoing a radical transformation. Moving away from the polished interiors of its fine-dining past, the new operators have stripped the walls back to reveal the building’s rugged, original 1850s sandstone.

They’ve unearthed a fireplace and hardwood joists, and when Grappa is launched next month, architect Vince Squillace’s redesign will unveil a new open kitchen and plenty of luxe new fittings, including a freshly restored 1930s bar, imported from Europe.