I had the pleasure recently of trialing The Cut’s brand new Bar Menu & Cocktails, which offered up twists of classic favourites and like minded cocktails to match. It was a truly delicous experience that offers you a taste of the restaurant, and is the perfect pre-show meal giving you just enough to satisfy.
Channelling vintage glamour and a sophisticated whisky vibe, The Cut blends Australian post-colonial charm with a classic American-style steakhouse ambience throughout its striking dining room and moodily-lit bar. Interior design studio Luchetti Krelle has done a great job reinvigorated the bar area; tapping into the building’s colonial history to deliver a sophisticated experience that encourages counter dining, happy hour gatherings, pre-dinner aperitifs and post-dinner lingering with stiff cocktails, summery concoctions, barrel-aged drinks, and fine wines.
The Cut’s legacy, exposed timber beams and bare stone walls, leather booths, cowhide chairs, heavy marble tables and artefacts steeped in Australian history, are now paired with a stronger focus on the polished, copper-topped bar area. Elegant stools for bar-side dining and dimmed lighting give The Cut an intimate supper club vibe in the evening, which is complemented by a spanking new cocktail menu.
Old-style décor meets old-school service with a smoked Negroni, gin Martini and vodka Martini pre-batched and bottled in-house, then poured and garnished tableside. Several “high roller” cocktails, such as the Vieux Carré and Tipperary, hark back to the 1930s prohibition era, while an Old Fashioned, Revolver and Boulevardier are barrel-aged on site. A collection of less boozy, ‘light and bright’ cocktails, including The Cut’s signature twist on the Americano and a pavlova Martini, are summery options.
The new cocktail list is complemented with over 500 bins of local and international wines, a whisky list that heroes over 80 Scottish, Irish, Japanese and Australian single malts, as well as American bourbons and blends, cognacs, brandies, liqueurs, and bottled and draught craft beers. A weekday happy hour from 4pm to 6pm rounds out the new bar experience with a $12 Negroni and barrel-aged Old Fashioned, $10 Americano and highballs, $7 G&T and wine, $5 beer, and $18 glasses of Champagne.
Rockpool DNA continues to underscore the menu, including The Cut’s showstopper dish: slow-cooked, Dijon-crusted prime rib off the bone, which has been a menu highlight for over nine years. Now served as a Standard Cut (300g), The Cut (400g) and Super Cut (500g), it is slow-roasted for four hours and presented tableside from an antique silver and rosewood trolley and served with veal jus, horseradish cream and a dash of old-school theatre.
The culinary focus continues to be on the best-quality, responsibly-sourced, sustainable beef, lamb, pork and king prawns that are given a flavoursome lick of the charcoal grill flame – another Rockpool trait. The American steakhouse flavour also extends to classics dishes such as crab cakes and beef tartare, as well as The Cut’s signature cheeseburger and ‘French Dip’ prime rib sandwich. That’s right: delicious, slow-roasted beef served in a crusty baguette and drizzled with jus. Several dishes also feature as bar snacks, including oysters with pink peppercorn mignonette, Oritz anchovy with tomatoes on toast, and iamón serrano platter.
By day, The Cut continues to be a power-broking business lunch destination and a ‘must-do’ for tourists who are drawn through the heritage façade for its outstanding, Australian beef credentials. By night, it is easier to slip into an underground, speakeasy vibe with martinis served tableside, bourbon and rye-based cocktails aging gracefully in barrels and a splash of bubbles, fizz, and fun cocktails for easy pre or post dinner drinking.
Rockpool Dining Group Food & Beverage Director, Premium Restaurants, NSW, Tom Sykes said: “We’ve kept everything that our regulars love about The Cut: our much-loved, slow-cooked, prime rib off the bone, charcoal-grilled flavours, fantastic seafood and smart service.”
“Then we’ve added a little more meat to the bone in terms of menu diversity, with our casual cheeseburger and French Dip prime rib sandwich, classic steakhouse dishes and bar-style bites, as well as a more compelling cocktail list and happy hour.”
It’s an easy kind of atmosphere where you feel relaxed enough to dip your roll into the sauce, and the cocktails are clever and absolutley delicous, see you at the bar.
Edited by Arrnott Olssen
