Paddington’s Olympia Theatre has a rich creative history dating back to 1911. Now the Oxford Street landmark is set to be reborn as a hotel with three new venues, created by a stylish London hospitality studio.
Palomar, which has been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand since opening in Soho in 2014, is bringing its brand to Sydney, joining its award-winning cocktail and wine bar sibling The Mulwray. Coffee and bakery concept Jacob the Angel will also join the fun.
The venues are part of the Studio Paskin restaurant group, whose London portfolio includes Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table. The studio will present its new Sydney venue within the 25hours Hotel The Olympia, which is scheduled to open in the former Olympia Theatre building in late July or August.
The meticulous restoration and redevelopment of the hotel’s heritage site on Oxford Street has been plagued by delays.
One of Sydney’s earliest suburban cinemas, originally known as the West Olympia Theatre, it was renamed the Odeon in the 1950s and then the Olympia again in the 1960s as a Greek cinema. It has changed names and uses many times since then, but many Sydneysiders remember it best from its heyday as a zeitgeist bar-restaurant, the Grand Pacific Blue Room.
Jeremy Colahan, general manager of the soon-to-open 25 Hours Hotel, says The Palomar, The Mulwray and Jacob the Angel will all be located on the ground floor of the hotel.
“There’s a cool atrium in the back,” says Colahan, who is currently in Europe meeting the Studio Paskin team.
Studio Paskin’s founders are brother and sister duo Layo and Zoe Paskin, who have taken an unusual path to restaurants. Layo Paskin started out as a DJ, releasing four albums before opening London nightclub The End with her siblings in the mid-1990s.
The Palomar targeted the London market for a restaurant influenced by the cuisines of the Levant, southern Spain and North Africa, and the restaurant quickly became a success, being named restaurant of the year by Tatler magazine.
Colahan said the Sydney version will follow the seasonal menu of the London version, with guests expected to enjoy braised lamb tripe with anchovy and rosemary sauce, sea bass with blood orange and baklava and pistachio-filled ice cream sandwiches.
“The chefs and team at the Palomar are out in force, and they’re picking some of the best talent for the opening,” Colahan said.
The Mulwray Bar is named after Evelyn Mulwray, the character played by Faye Dunaway in the controversial 1974 film Chinatown by Roman Polanski. The bar will offer an extensive wine and cocktail list.
The 109 rooms will also feature Sydney’s latest fashion accessory: a rooftop venue, Colahan says. Open 24/7 with views of Paddington, Monica will offer a view of modern Sydney “through a nostalgic 1960s Hollywood touch.”
It won’t require any London input; Colahan says the hotel will take care of the rooftop space and inject some Santa Monica vibes into it.
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