It’s high stakes in Sydney’s steak scene, and now there’s a new entrant from Melbourne. Its difference? “It’s Italian first and foremost.”
Grill Americano, the latest grill restaurant to move into Sydney’s CBD, officially opens on Wednesday. It’s the newest venue by Lucas Collective, the Melbourne-born group run by Chris Lucas, also behind popular South-East Asian restaurant Chin Chin.
The 170-person restaurant is at the high-profile address of 1 Chifley Square, the curved Felix Tavener-designed mid-century building formerly known as Qantas House – a prime CBD location among the law firms and banks and across the road from Martin Place metro station.
It’s also in the “prime-cut zone” – ground zero for grilled meats and steak houses, and expensive cooking gear such as imported Josper charcoal ovens.
In fact, Grill Americano is on the same block as two-hatted Rockpool Bar and Grill, which opened 15 years ago. Circle out a handful of blocks, and you’ll also find two-hatted The Grill at The International at Martin Place and one-hat Clam Bar on Bridge Street.
The Good Food Guide restaurant of the year, Eleven Barrack, is on Barrack Street, and nearby there’s Bistecca, Chophouse, The Gidley and Bopp & Tone. Then there’s the sirloin-and-sides restaurant Alfie’s and newly opened steak frites restaurant 24 York.
“Familiarity breeds popularity. People like the comfort of the form,” says Callan Boys, Good Food’s national restaurant editor. “A martini and snacky seafood to start – oysters or a prawn cocktail, say – then a steak and many sides.
“It’s an elevated version of the meat-and-three-vegetable dinners many Australians grew up with and still cook at home themselves.”
The Lucas Collective stable, which also includes Chin Chin Melbourne, as well as Society, Batard, one-hat Grill Americano and others in the Victorian capital, has grown steadily in recent years but encountered occasional controversy. (In 2019, a report found the group had underpaid staff.)
Lucas says they’ve been sourcing beef for the past 12 months for their second Sydney restaurant, and the result is 15 beef dishes, including a handful designed to be shared with a group, such as the 1.2 kilogram bistecca alla fiorentina (sliced loin on the bone).
There are three signature cuts, including bistecca pizzaiola, a 500-gram tenderloin layered on a rich tomato sauce with capers, olives and oregano. “It’s beautiful slow-cooked beef sliced … It’s a classic dish, very homely,” Lucas says.
Executive chef Vincenzo Ursini says he’s excited about the zabuton, full-blood wagyu from Japan, and the 400-gram grappa-infused dry-aged citrus-fed hanger steak.
“The cattle are citrus-fed and the grappa is introduced towards the end of the dry-ageing period to give this beautiful deep complexity. It’s something not many other restaurants are doing,” he says.
It’s not all steak, though. The signature octopus carpaccio, wood-oven roasted scampi on saffron pilaf and grilled King George whiting all appear – plus an oyster bar featuring oysters from up to 12 farms. It’s at one end of a sleek 30-metre long marble bar that allows diners ringside seats to chefs preparing dishes.
Lucas says one of the attractions of a grill is it allows you to have an extensive menu, just as neighbouring Rockpool and The International Grill. “I think probably, from all my restaurants, [Grill Americano] has touched a certain sort of popularity with people,” he says. “It has a very broad popularity.”
Asked how Grill Americano differs from other Sydney grills, Lucas says, “Well, it’s Italian first and foremost.”
He calls it a New York-style Venetian grill influenced by the elegant restaurants and hotels of Venice (Lucas is a big fan of Harry’s Bar) and the old Italian steak houses of New York such as Sparks.
Because his Sydney venue has a much larger kitchen than Melbourne, the team has been able to ramp up hand-made pasta options. Overseen by chef Simone Giorgia (who, like Ursini, has moved to Sydney for the opening), the menu includes lobster agnolotti, buffalo ricotta ravioli and linguine with spanner crab.
That Italian influence is in the beef, too. Apart from the dry-aged steaks, the beef is marinated in olive oil, garlic and rosemary. “Before serving, we brush them with rosemary and add a touch of lemon,” says Lucas.
Can Sydney sustain another steak restaurant? Brett Robinson, group chief executive of The Point Group, which owns The International, thinks so. He says we live in an international city that thrives on energy, diversity and quality.
“Sydney’s big enough and hungry enough for new experiences,” Robinson says. “The arrival of more great restaurants only adds to the energy appeal of the city.”
(Good Food also contacted Rockpool to see if the business would like to comment on its new neighbour, but it declined.)
Robinson adds that with Joel Bickford leading the kitchen, The International has a uniquely Sydney perspective. “Connected to our ingredients and our people – that’s what makes The International different. It’s not imported, it’s deeply local but feels global.”
Good Food’s Boys says it’s a competitive scene, but there’s one thing that’s the difference between good and great.
“All these grills offer a laundry list of steaks, and they’re all fighting for exclusive access to cuts, breeds and farms. They all have very nice, very comfortable dining rooms too. I think the real point of difference – the factor that decides whether a grill thrives or dies – will come down to the level of service offered. Charming, skilled floor staff are much harder for an operator to find than another pasture-fed rib-eye.”
Open lunch and dinner daily from Wednesday, November 19
1 Chifley Square, Sydney, grillamericano.com
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Sarah Norris – Sarah is Head of Good Food and a former national editor at Broadsheet.
