We all love that cluster of bars, specialising in cracking cocktails, smattered along a few streets and laneways near Town Hall – from Lobo and The Barber Shop to Papa Gede’s and Old Love’s. They must be some kind of cocktail bar hydra, because when one closes (RIP Grandma’s Bar) two more – Prefecture 48 and Little Cooler, say – magically open in its place. It’s wonderful, really.
But I’ve always hoped that, just once, one of those bars would focus on wines. Not another restaurant cosplaying as a wine bar, but an actual bar dedicated to drinking wine. My wish comes true tonight: Letra House, the downstairs wine bar counterpart to its upstairs forebear Palazzo Salato, opens this evening.
If you’ve been worried that, between all the new Fabbricas opening around town, the Love Tilly Group had forgotten how to open a capital-B bar, Letra House unequivocally puts those fears to rest.
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SIGN UP“Part of the reason we settled in Clarence Street is that we wanted to be part of that community of cocktail bars around here,” Matt Swieboda, Love Tilly Group’s managing director, tells Broadsheet. “Letra House is actually why we looked at this property in the first place, but because it’s this beautiful old 1860s heritage building … we did Palazzo upstairs first, because this has been the most challenging build we’ve done as a group.”
It’s worth the wait, though. You enter via a cobblestoned Kent Street laneway, into a space inspired by some of the Love Tilly team’s favourite boltholes from around Europe. Although it’s designed by Studio Vista’s Sarah Watt, who also handled Palazzo Salato, this is no appendix to the main event. Letra House is distinct, with all the polish and ambiance you’d expect from the group – plus its own clandestine frisson that’ll make you feel like deleting a bottle of wine in no time.
Unlike the spots that prioritise list length above all, the goal with Letra House was to keep it to a tight 50 or so bottles that rotate often – curated by head somm Julie Barbero-Lesage and Swieboda. All will be available by the glass.
“We thought it would be really fun to run with a dynamic, ever-changing wine list that has themes,” says Swieboda. “Say a producer that we love to work with releases 10 or so wines: we’d focus on that producer – plus some other wines from that region.
“[We’ll] do that for a few days then move onto something else – keeping it short will really allow our sommeliers to focus on engaging with guests.”
Of course, there’s food here as well – and it’s ripper. Fans of the dearly missed Spanish-focused La Salut will be chuffed to hear that exec chef Scott McComas-Williams is again imbuing the snacks with Spanish flair. There’s a fun line-up of tapas: duck leg croquettes and doughnuts with manchego custard and Cantabrian anchovy. Plus more cured meats than you can shake a leg of jamon at. After the chefs go home at 11, a late-night menu with a few surprises – tinned foie gras, for starters – kicks into gear. It’s all excellent, but it won’t leave you confused about the task at hand: drinking good wine.
“A lot of wine bars really aspire to be great restaurants, but wine is such an important part of my life, and I wanted a venue to express that in,” Swieboda says. “I just love the idea of sitting down, having a wine with your mates, a little tin of foie gras, and just talking until two in the morning. I think that’s really exciting.”
Letra House
[344 Kent Street, CBD](
Enter at rear
Hours:
Mon to Wed 4pm–1am
Thu 4pm–2am
Fri midday–2am
Sat 4pm–2am