Team behind Olympus Dining to take over two venues at Redfern’s $500m dining precinct

Redfern’s glistening new precinct Wunderlich Lane is set to lose two jewels in its crown, with European-inspired lobby bar Bar Julius and its rooftop Mexican sibling, Lottie, to close at The Eve Hotel Sydney.

The owners of neighbouring venue Olympus Dining will take over the two locations later this year. A spokeswoman for the group, who is also behind The Apollo and Cho Cho San, said they would open this year but gave no further details. The Lottie space is strongly tipped to move away from Mexican cuisine.

The $500 million TOGA Group redevelopment of the old Redfern Mall first opened in late 2024. The precinct included the luxury boutique hotel, a supermarket, grocer and several restaurants run by big-name operators. This is not the first change in the dining line-up, with Baptist Street Rec. Club morphing into Italian restaurant Vitelli’s Upstairs in its first year.

Liquid and Larder, the hospitality group behind CBD bar-restaurants Bistecca and The Gidley, opened Bar Julius and rooftop hotel venue Lottie just 18 months ago, on the corner of Cleveland and Baptist streets. Liquid and Larder co-founder James Bradey confirmed they will cease to operate the venues at the end of August.

“I’m really proud of what we’re doing,” Bradey said. “But we haven’t hit the heights financially [at Bar Julius and Lottie] we’d like.”

The Wunderlich Lane development paved a gentrified path on the grittier southern side of Cleveland Street, with both glitz venues at The Eve Hotel receiving positive reviews and Bar Julius snaring design awards. Lottie was also awarded a Good Food Guide hat, and won praise as a “sun-splashed rooftop for margarita-charged long lunches”.

If Liquid and Larder had its time again, Bradey and his team might’ve done a few things differently. Despite the “bar” connotations of its name, Bar Julius is an all-day venue where hotel guests at The Eve eat breakfast. “We were originally going to call it Baptist, but another venue in the development [the now-closed Baptist Street Rec. Club] opened before us,” Bradey said. “It’s certainly more successful at night … maybe we should have called it Bistro Julius or just Julius.”

The all-day model resonated with some locals; Bradey said one local business owner popped into Bar Julius for a morning espresso, darting back for lunch and regularly ending the day with dinner or a drink. In March, Good Food critic Callan Boys praised Bar Julius for its versatility and resonance with Redfern clientele: “Bar Julius may actually be that rarest of breeds: a busy hotel bar used more by locals than guests.”

Bradey said the relationship with TOGA Group had been open and transparent. “We had a bunch of financial forecasts we kept revisiting along the journey, and when we weren’t really hitting them we’d discuss it with them,” he said.

“When they said the concept needs a change, we thought ‘it’s probably not us’ [to do it] … It was really a joint decision. It [also] makes sense having one operator across the three venues.”