Good Food’s critic loves the late-night lasagne at STC’s new bar

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The Sydney Theatre Company is having an extremely busy season. Not just with its new programming, but also with its eats and drinks. First came The Wharf Restaurant and Bar, on the site of celebrated 𝄒80s restaurant, The Wharf. The idea from hospitality company The Fresh Collective is to offer a place for a proper sit-down meal before or after a show.

Across the road, there’s now Folio, right next door to the Roslyn Packer Theatre – the perfect place to drop in for a martini and a plate of fries before watching David Wenham take on The Iliad.

Drink-maker Charlie Ainsbury (Bayswater Brasserie, Eau de Vie, Bulletin Place, This Must be the Place) is consulting here. He sees this as Sydney’s version of one of those century-old bars New Yorkers love to love.

You won’t necessarily see him on the tools, but you’ll definitely see his thumbprint on the menu. Delicious as his Coconut Tommy’s is (tequila, lime and agave syrup infused with the flavour of toasted coconut), I’d be ordering a red apple Sazerac before settling in for a 100-minute Greek saga with no intervals. That’s a hot, peppery, frosty riff on the New Orleans classic of Calvados, French fortified wine and Peychaud’s bitters, spritzed with a little anise at the end.

The room is decked out in shades of scarlet, purple and rose. Low-slung salon tables and cute velvet stools dominate the middle of the space – just right for an intimate drink, a serve of confit garlic sourdough and some LP’s charcuterie. Keen to debrief post-show? Do it over a round of Infinity Old Fashioneds, made with what they’re calling a “mother whisky” – a blend of every whisky behind the bar, along with a slug of guest’s choice (I went with Ardbeg 10 years old), which goes back into the mother mix, so no two orders are the same.

For extra points, order the poutine (the Canadian version of chips and gravy, topped with cheese curds) off the late-night menu, which kicks into gear at 9pm. See also: buttermilk fried chicken and wagyu lasagne with truffled manchego. Oof.

While I love Ainsbury’s vision of Folio being our answer to, say, the legendary Bemelmans Bar in New York, which prides itself on bartenders being nearly as seasoned as the venue itself, the reality here is front-of-house runs like it’s a Circular Quay cafe.

A “joke of the week” cocktail is a mix of three-year-old rum, French pear spirit and fresh tarragon and comes with a prompt to ask what the “joke of the week” is. I ask a staff member, who doesn’t know, but runs to the bar to find out.

“What’s the difference between a guitar and a fish? You can’t tuna fish!” she says triumphantly on her return, heartily adding the bar’s concept slogan, “the theatre starts with us!” I thank her, to which she replies in a conspiratorial whisper, “The theatre should start and end at the theatre”, which I thought was far funnier than the joke.

Unlike the theatre bars around Manhattan, which are drawcards whether there’s a show on or not, this one completely empties out at the sound of the house chimes. All that’s left is staff hurrying to reset for the post-show rush. So dropping in on a Saturday night while there’s a show on is actually a bit of a secret Sydney flex, if you think about it. Waterside setting and zero wait time for a cocktail? Unheard of.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.