Two Of A Kind

Two chefs are adding new dimensions to a couple of the city’s most celebrated wine bars

- David Matthews

Since 2014, as Sydney’s lockout laws steadily dismantled the city’s traditional nightlife, its small bars have become increasingly vital. When two of them, 10 William St and Love, Tilly Devine, wine bars both, opened in the summer of 2011 on the back of changes to the state’s licensing laws, they were symbols of a growing movement: places run by good hospitality folk with an interest in interesting things to drink and eat in settings more about buzz and energy than formality or pretence. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine the city without them. Looking ahead, new talents are deepening their appeal.

At 10 William St, the food has always been a draw as much as the wine. For the vine-dedicated there’s the chance to get lost in a deep list of minimal-intervention wines from Italy (Organic Sangiovese from makers Pacina in Tuscany, for example) and bottles from people doing exciting, preservative-free things at home and further afield. But waiting in the street out front, jostling for space between the tiny tables, and swiping the seeded pretzel through the whipped bottarga dip has become as much a necessity as ordering a glass of something fresh and juicy from the chalkboard.

10 William has also been a draw for talent keen to blur the line between Italian and whatever else they’re into: think Pepperell pre-Hubert, Burgess postGaragistes or Pinbone between pop-ups. The chef for the past few years has been Enrico Tomelleri, who kept a little closer to Italy. But as his focus shifted to developing the next venue for owners Marco Ambrosino and brothers Enrico and Giovanni Paradiso (who also own Fratelli Paradiso), the chance for someone new to jump in beckoned.