Sydney is not (a picnic) short of a good sandwich. We’ve got Florentine-inspired numbers in focaccia, crusty banh mi buns that’ll test your dental work, and enough avo sourdough situations to set your home loan application wait time back by about 6-12 years.
So did we really need another one? The Heritage Room, which opened yesterday on the corner of 25 Martin Place, thinks so.
This is the latest from Esper Group, the family behind Rovollo just round the corner, and their answer is a schiacciata – the Tuscan cousin nobody asked for, but everyone’s about to want. And as good as it is, the sandwich is hardly the star. Instead, in a spectacular set-up that features top-tier somms and imported Tuscan meats, it almost feels like a support act. Albeit one that we’re predicting is going to quickly collect its own cult following…
First, the literal room
There’s a curved rosa marble bar right as you walk in, flanked by glossy Tasmanian Blackwood, French wash walls and oversized custom art. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrap the corner site, so you get the Martin Place buzz without standing in it. Thirty-five seats total, which keeps things tight and a bit theatrical.
Off to one side sits a smaller dining nook – vintage banquette seating, wallpaper with some real personality – and round the corner from that, a working wine cellar. On the other side, behind heavy wooden doors, a private dining room for up to 25, built for the client lunch that’s worth actually turning up to.
Then, the wine bar bit
Head sommelier Giulia Ceruzzi – ex-LuMi, ex-The International, ex-Fratelli Paradiso, and named one of Australia’s top 50 sommeliers this year – has put together a list that leans hard into Tuscany without playing it safe. Easy by-the-glass pours like vermentino, Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Chianti Classico for the after-work crowd, plus proper vintage bottles like Brunello di Montalcino for when the occasion calls for it.
There are 38 wines by the glass, a run of magnums and half bottles, and for the wine nerds, rare whites made from red Italian grapes grown on Etna’s volcanic slopes.
Everything else on the table…
The antipasti board – imported Tuscan meats and cheeses, including a Prosciutto Toscano and a truffle pecorino, both of which work just as well solo with a glass of wine as they do before the mains.
If you’re after something more substantial, there’s a deconstructed lasagne made with wild boar ragu and house-made Tuscan kale pasta sheets, which took 20 pasta attempts to get right. Feliciano’s sourced as much as possible directly from Tuscany – the prosciutto, the cheese, even the olive oil – and everything on the menu is designed to have a wine match sorted, whites and reds both.
For bigger groups, the private dining room runs four set menus, weighted more towards indulgent grills like Tuscan bistecca and dry-aged, infused steaks.
But, back to that sandwich
Finally, Chef Cami Feliciano’s beef short rib schiacciata is slow-roasted for 12 hours and served with Tuscan cheese fondue. It’s good. Really good. But, it’s built to be eaten with a glass in hand, not at your desk with one hand on the keyboard.
So no, Sydney probably didn’t need another sandwich. Turns out it needed this one…
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