By Annabelle Cloros, Hospitality Magazine
Gone are the days where guests dropped by a bar for a pre- or post-dinner drink — now, there’s no need to rush off to make a 7pm reservation thanks to a new guard of establishments serving food beyond olives and cheese. Venues like Joji in Sydney and Melbourne’s Apollo Inn are leading the charge, offering patrons a one-stop-shop for the evening.
Hospitality speaks to Joji’s Paul Farag and Apollo Inn’s Colin Mainds about putting together complete culinary offerings, the changing bar landscape, and why the market no longer demands — but expects — a full food menu. Joji has been the talk of Sydney since it opened at the tail end of 2024.
The venue is the first bar concept from Esca Group, known for its portfolio of restaurants including Aalia, Nour, Henrietta, Lilymu, and Ito. So, it was only right food would play a significant role at Japanese-leaning concept Joji, which is located atop the Cartier building in the CBD. “Jumping into our first bar — and for us always being restaurant-focused — we couldn’t imagine a venue without food,” says Group Executive Chef Paul Farag.
“We feel like people are changing the way they’re going out and it’s not the same as it was 10 years ago. We wanted to adapt and give people an offering to stay on for longer than they normally would if it was just a bar.” The team worked on the concept for “quite a while” and set out to launch a space that provided a light, fun atmosphere as well as an extensive food menu inspired by the drinks offering. “We focused on Japanese influences with the drinks and followed suit with the food,” says Farag. “The food is not traditional (like everything I do), and it’s a bit of an amalgamation of Sydney’s current dining scene.”

Farag travelled to Japan for R&D purposes before Joji launched and deliberately steered away from fine-dining venues in favour of local yakitori spots and izakayas recommended by friends living in the country. “I said, ‘Take me to where you guys eat’, and these places weren’t on ‘best’ lists or anything like that,” says the chef. “It allowed me to get inspiration from the traditional elements and also see how far I can push the envelope.”
The menu at Joji is split up into raw, not raw, robata, and desserts, with 90 per cent of customers ordering something “whether it’s just a bowl of fried lotus chips or edamame” — but that’s not the norm. “What has surprised us has been the amount of people coming here and having a full meal,” says Farag. “We’ve been selling a lot more food than we thought, which is something we weren’t anticipating.”
The kitchen team has grown by six chefs since opening to accommodate the customer demand for food, with the team working within a relatively compact kitchen. “It’s probably the smallest kitchen we have in the group,” says Farag. “We had a lot of constraints with this building when we first designed the kitchen, so it’s very minimal in terms of equipment — it’s a flat top, a Robata grill, and a small combi oven. I come from a world of making it work and adapting, so we’ve had a few menu changes since opening and removed things that weren’t really selling.”
The most-ordered dish so far has been the scallop and bug sando with kimchi mayo, followed by the beef tartare with potato hash and nashi pear, and the edamame. Another dish that’s been making the rounds on TikTok is the curry bread, which Farag based on a dough recipe from Aalia. “I can’t have a meal without bread, so I developed a dough infused with curry which is fried and piped with a hot sauce.” There are no specific food and beverage pairings at Joji as most of the food and drinks naturally complement each other.
The approach ties in with the Joji experience, which is rooted by an underlying theme of ‘choosing your own adventure’. “People have options to eat in different styles, so they’re not just conformed to things on sticks,” says Farag. “Joji’s been an interesting learning curve for us all, and I think there will be more evolutions of the brand coming up. There’s a market there for bars serving food.”

Apollo Inn is part of the Trader House group and is the bar offshoot of neighbouring restaurant Gimlet at Cavendish House. The Melbourne venue delivers an old-world experience to patrons — think chilled martinis and equally as chilled seafood. And that’s just scratching the surface. “If you’re going to go to a venue operated by Trader House and Andrew McConnell, the expectation is that the food is going to be pretty good,” says Executive Chef Colin Mainds. “When you go to bars, there’s a focus on drinks and the food is often an afterthought or a simple snack offering. When you’re drinking, we yearn for more a lot of the time, so we wanted to match the two together.”
Mainds describes the menu as fluid, with the format suiting the “ebb and flow of a night on the town”. Oysters, caviar, and seafood-based dishes are at the heart of the food program here, which tie in with both the drinks menu and the Euro theme of the bar. “We need the flavours to be clean and packed with good seasoning, but nothing is overwhelming or going to destroy your palate when you’re sipping on Champagne,” says the chef. “Victoria has bountiful seafood and it’s natural for us to lean towards cooking seafood.” The seafood focus also suits the venue’s small kitchen space, which is located next to the bar.
While there is a dedicated chef working each dinner service, wait and bar staff also step in and prepare food when needed. “We do a lot of training together, sothey can give us a hand,” says Mainds. “It’s another skill set for them which is great, and it’s a team situation where everyone can do everything.”

When it comes to fan favourites, the prawn club sandwich has become the signature dish of the bar and a mainstay on the menu, which changes with the seasons. “We run specials as well so there are new items every time guests walk through the door,” says Mainds. “Lots of people come in on a weekly basis, so it’s nice for them to try something new.”
The crème caramel is another crowd pleaser and was the very first dish the team decided on. “We started from the bottom when we were writing the menu and we said we must do a caramel, but we didn’t want to do an individual portion. We wanted it to be more like a flan and have it on display, so guests walk through and can eye it off.”
Mainds estimates 90 per cent of customers order something from the food menu, with the majority selecting two to four dishes. “You can come in and feel like you’ve had a decent meal,” he says. “I think it’s becoming much more commonplace for bars to offer quality food. It doesn’t have to be a long menu, but having some well-crafted snacks of varying weights to complement the drinks makes for a more well-rounded experience.”
Click here to subscribe to the Hospitality Magazine Newsletter