During its nearly 60-year run, Sydney’s Wentworth Hotel has been the backdrop to political events, near scandal and a roll call of guests including Audrey Hepburn, Marlon Brando and Margaret Thatcher. The mid-century gem on Phillip Street, which has seemingly served as many celebrities as hot dinners, is about to make a major change in food direction. Its restaurants and bars have been outsourced to House Made Hospitality, the outfit behind CBD restaurants Lana and Grana .
On the first weekend of October, House Made opens Tilda restaurant with former Ledbury (London) chef Nathanael Merchant at the helm, as well as its sibling, Bar Tilda . They will be the first of four venues at the hotel, which is considered Sydney hotel royalty. “The [late Queen Elizabeth II], stayed here, as did Putin, the Stones and the Beatles,” House Made director Justin Newton says.
When Qantas opened the Wentworth in 1966, it was Sydney’s first international hotel built specifically to cater for the “jet set”. While guests in the 1960s ate at restaurants with antiquated monikers such as the Ayers Rock Grill, new guests will dine at Tilda (short for Matilda), which will plot a more contemporary Australian path while trying to retain elements of mid-century Sydney. “We want some of that glamour of hotel dining and drinking [from the time],” Newton says.
Cigar smoke from the era may have cleared, but Tilda will offer a retro tableside bread and butter tray service with an array of garnish.
