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✍️ Time Out Sydney never writes starred restaurant and bar reviews from hosted experiences – Time Out covers restaurant and bar bills, and anonymously reviews, so that readers can trust our critique. Find out more, here.
It’s worrying to think what Sam Overton has been through to write a menu as confrontational as the one on the tables at Frankie Cadillac.
“Welcome to Frankie’s,” it says on page one, “where we don’t fuck around”.
If nothing else it’s consistent. The Negroni bar is by the same Londoner who opened boisterous Oxford Street restaurant Bootleg Italian in 2021, with the words “Eats, Beats, Booze” written in pink neon lights above the door.
Like with that now-shuttered venue, which prided itself on “doing shit properly”, Frankie’s highly entertaining menu is scattered with sweary self-assurances (see: “this shit is wild”, “this shit is legit”, “fucking perfection”).
Front and centre are the five house rules, which include “don’t be a dick” and “bar service only” because “we’re not your butlers”.
Needless to say there’s a tremble in my voice as I order a tray of Negronis (from the bar) which are, to be fair, not fucking around.
The vibe
For a bar that occupies a corner of Albion Street adjacent to Surry Hills hot spot Bar Copains, the differences are extreme.
Where the French wine bar is pale-toned, laid-back and minimal, Frankie’s is low-lit and gaudy, loud with gold frames and neon lights and depictions of naked women strewn across the ceilings and toilet doors.
“Please don’t do coke in the bathroom”, reads a purple neon installation against the flamingo-spangled wallpaper.
The deliberately in-your-face style reflects the venue’s antagonistic tagline, which, for whatever reason, is: “Make Negronis, not friends”.
Outside is more chill, and clumps of tables and chairs on the street corner of Albion and Bellevue make it an altogether pretty sweet nook. A table there, please.
The food
Overton’s brought a number of his Italian dishes over from Bootleg, including fried ricotta-filled olives ($14), mushroom and truffle arancini ($8), and a basket of high-percentage hydration flatbreads.
Like Bootleg, and Overton’s one-time Paddo sandwich bar, the food is all plant-based, making the concoctions all the more impressive.
The three 10-inch flatbread pizzas are good sharers, and all, as promised, come teeming with flavour and sloshing with olive oil. Each one is simple and unfussy, with options comprising a juicy marinara ($20), a velvety vodka sauce ($22), and an uber-garlicky base with house-made garlic herb butter ($18).
The drinks
The self-ascribed “Home of the Negroni” offers 38 variations on the classic cocktail, plus a vintage list with prices up to $500 a drink.
The classic ($26) is one part Campari, one part Bombay Sapphire gin, one part sweet vermouth, made in-house. It’s smoother than most – less of the usual bitter bite, more rounded and easy to drink.
Among the most popular riffs are the “Boulevardier” ($30) – which swaps out gin for Angel’s Envy bourbon – and “Mexican” ($29), which adds a smoky splash of Mezcal to the mix.
Elsewhere, there are seldom-seen iterations including a “Japanese” ($28) with Junmai sake and a “Kingston” ($26) with Jamaican rum, as well as blends with chocolate ($26), coffee ($26) and orange ($25) liqueurs.
Frankie’s signature cocktails are layered with house-made syrups, liqueurs and juices. There are several takes on Martinis ($25-32) and Margs ($25-26), and a bunch of originals, including an Irish cream-infused “Bondi to Bronte” ($29) and “Frankie’s Reviver #1” ($25) with a hit of house-made gin.
Clearly a purist at heart, Overton appears to have constructed a list where both Negroni novices and hardnuts can access the famously divisive drink.
Just don’t try and make friends.
Time Out tip
There’s an $80 “tasting plate”, which comes as four half-sized Negronis, but we reckon you’re better off heading down at happy hour – a tray of four full-sized classic Negronis will cost you just $60.
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