Since leaving Hunter St Hospitality, which owns Rockpool Bar & Grill, Corey Costelloe – the group’s former culinary director – has been keeping himself busy. Having locked in a one-week residency on Tasmania’s King Island in May and a guest spot in CBD kitchens, he told Broadsheet he’s been working on something a bit more substantial: a six-month pop-up. This June, together with his mate David Allison, he’s opening a restaurant in Marrickville, on the site of Allison’s now-closed cafe Stix.

“I’m very excited to be running just one restaurant, to be honest,” Costelloe tells. “Working in a large group with so many restaurants and bits and pieces, and not being on the ground so much, did take its toll – so I’m looking forward to doing one restaurant and really getting back into the kitchen.”

Allison owns Stix, a regenerative organic farm in the Hawkesbury that supplies vegetables to some of Sydney’s best restaurants, including Firedoor, 10 William St and Quay. About a year ago, Allison closed his Marrickville cafe of the same name and it’s been mostly dormant since. Allison and Costelloe got to talking and decided to make something out of the space.

We think you might like Access. For $12 a month, join our membership program to stay in the know.

SIGN UP

The concept doesn’t have a name yet, but that’ll change real soon.

“I’m going over to Dave’s place at Stix Farm this weekend to finalise some details, and we’ll be planting some things now that’ll hopefully be ready in time for our opening in June,” Costelloe says. “I also think we’ll come up a with a name this weekend.”

The concept, however, is a lot more clear: Costelloe will be reaching into the bag of tricks that became his calling card at Rockpool: hyper-seasonal produce, fuelled by Stix Farm, and a reverence for animals bought whole and butchered in-house, provided by some of Australia’s best-known suppliers, including David Blackmore Wagyu.

“Really produce-driven, with very simple plating – I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s just going to be food that I really like cooking and eating,” says Costelloe. “I’m going to buy whole animals and break them all down – you’ll find all different cuts of beef on the menu – and I’ll definitely be doing a lot of cooking over the wood fire.”

Costelloe and Allison’s as-yet-unnamed pop-up will be around for six months, but the door’s open to an extension if the public takes a shine to it. Mostly, Costelloe is just invigorated by the chance to get back on the pans.

“We’ll run it for six months and see how it goes, if we’re successful, we might keep it open,” he says. “But I’m pretty excited and Dave’s keen to get back on the tools too, so it’ll be a couple of old geezers back in the kitchen.”

The pop-up from Corey Costelloe and David Allison is slated to open at 20 Chapel Street, Marrickville, in June 2024.