Odd Culture is responsible for a happily mixed bag of Sydney venues. There’s the eponymous King Street bar, Bistro Grenier in its loft and drink-in bottle-o Spon up the road. There’s Woolloomooloo treasure The Old Fitz and Australia’s last remaining pub theatre. Plus, Pleasure Club for live performance and nailed cocktails, and classic pub The Duke of Enmore. In 2025, Odd Culture is growing again with a whopping, as-yet-unnamed CBD joint.

To help with the job, the group has welcomed two new senior hires: executive chef Alex Haupt and chief operating officer Rebecca Lines (of now-closed Redbird and Tequila Daisy).

“I come from a hospo family, so [this career] felt inevitable,” Haupt tells Broadsheet. “Hospo has been really good to me and is one of the few industries that provides you with opportunities all around the world.”

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The chef returns to Sydney after a shiny cooking career in Europe, where he won the Michelin Young Chef Award and ran his own Amsterdam restaurant 101 Gowrie. “It felt like the right time to come back. I am really enjoying rediscovering the city I grew up in with grown-up eyes.”

Lines has been in hospitality since she was a teen – and the industry got under her skin. “I just kept coming back to it. I think it’s the energy. I could never sit still in an office when I was younger.”

Here the pair share their new roles, pick their favourite Odd Culture venues and name the best things they’ve eaten recently.

Congrats team! Tell us about your new gigs.
AH: We have such a range of venues that, throughout the day, I’m switching pretty quickly between kitchens that serve more refined food (like Bistro Grenier) and pub menus at The Duke of Enmore. I could be recruiting chefs, researching for menu changes, managing suppliers and stock, and testing new dishes (the fun part). I’m hands-on in the kitchen as well, popping up wherever I’m needed and mentoring our staff.

RL: I’m overseeing all the moving parts that make our venues tick. Guest experience and efficiency for front-of-house and back-of-house form a big part of my role. It’s quite varied, but plenty of meetings with different departments – marketing, food, beverage or one-on-ones with our GMs. Tasting food and beverage is obviously a critical part of the role, and the design and build of our new CBD project.

Alex, what Odd Culture menu will be the first to change?
AH: I’m switching things up at The Duke of Enmore quite a bit – we’re doing a small refurb. There’ll still be woodfired pizzas, but we’re making them a little more comforting. I’m working really hard to make sure we have a banging parm and that the menu hits the right notes with our regulars. The menu will have more interactive bits that you can share.

Are there any dishes across the stable that are so loved they have to stay?
AH: The pudding chomeur at Bistro Grenier will stay forever. But at The Old Fitz there will be some gradual changes that are geared towards what our locals love – but of course the cheeseburger will remain. I’m looking at a few different ideas for The Old Fitz – like rotating specials. When it comes to changing anything, it will always be for the better.

What’s your favourite Odd Culture venue?
AH: Respectfully, I play no favourites. I really love the charm and colourfulness of The Old Fitz. And I really love the layer-cake-ness of Odd Culture and Bistro Grenier. But also, I really love the grunginess of the Duke.

RL: That’s like asking my favourite child! For me, The Old Fitz on a sunny Sunday lunch, outside on the street, is literally perfection. On Saturday night with friends or family, I always drop by Pleasure Club for a nightcap. The Duke’s pizzas are awesome, so we sometimes take the kids for an early dinner.

Rebecca, you closed your own popular venues last year, how are you feeling about the state of the industry moving into 2025?
RL: One of the things about this industry is it’s resilient – or, should I say, those of us who continue to love and work within the industry are. The industry may be operationally tougher than it was a decade or two ago, but we’ve made huge improvements to the working conditions. I feel really positive about where the industry’s going – I’m hoping the government gets onboard with ensuring small businesses can be successful in this country.

What was first on your Odd Culture to-do list?
RL: I didn’t go into the role with a to-do list, but I feel fairly settled in now and can say that operational efficiencies and exceptional service standards for the existing venues are high on my priority list. For our new venture, I want to ensure we get all the details of design, build and strategic planning right from the outset.

What’s the best thing about dining out in Sydney?
AH: The diversity of what is available and, generally speaking, being able to have some of the best Asian food in the world outside of Asia. Australia has some of the best produce in the world and it is such a privilege to have it at our fingertips.

RL: I have always believed we have some of the best dining and service. I love that Sydney is a melting pot of cuisines and that we do so many of them so well.

What’s the best thing you ate this week?
AH: Spicy beef noodle soup with thin egg noodles – always extra noodles! – at Happy Chef. I made myself a 1am breakfast bagel that felt angelic as well.

RL: I had to go to Bathurst last weekend for my daughter’s soccer competition, so it was lunch at Matt Moran’s pub The Rockley, in a tiny town 25 minutes out of Bathurst. Everything was super fresh and tasty and the staff were amazing.

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