Bar Copains pair open Bessie’s and Alma’s bar and restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney

The team behind Bar Copains will open Bessie’s on January 16 in the former Surry Hills home of kitchen supply institution Chefs’ Warehouse. Naming rights over the new restaurant and its separate bar, Alma’s, are clear-cut.

Co-owner Nathan Sasi’s 95-year-old grandmother Alma “still loves a shandy”, and the bar named in her honour will serve a White Bay Brewery lager with a customised motto: “The can nan loves to crack”.

“My family were Mormons and didn’t drink,” says co-owner Morgan McGlone. It explains why the venue’s restaurant was more appropriate turf to honour his late grandmother, Bessie. “She had 11 children, and with all the partners and grandkids, she was cooking all the time,” he says.

Bessie’s kitchen is similar to the slick, open-style of Sydney restaurants such as Fred’s and Viand, with a custom-built kit fulfilling the brief of cooking over fire. McGlone and Sasi have also lured an open fire specialist, Sydney chef Remy Davis, back from San Sebastian, where he has been on the tools at Michelin-starred Elkano.

Bessie’s sweeping Mediterranean menu has little in common with McGlone’s childhood encounters with bread fried in tallow and crockpots from his grandmother’s kitchen. “But I do have early memories on her farm, where they would dock the tails of lambs in spring, build a fire and cook them. We’d peel off the singed wool and eat this soft, milky lamb.”

In an age of cooking thermometers and sous vide Davis says he loves the energy of “cooking with feel”. “Working with fire is very organic. I learnt a lot overseas, not everything has to be high heat.”

Sasi and McGlone point to the Murray cod, inspired by Elkano’s famed turbot with pil pil sauce, as the dish that best showcases Davis’ skill on the grill. “Watching Remy spraying it with ‘nan’s holy water’ [Agua de Lourdes alkaline mineral water] so the fish keeps its skin, and the way he juggles everything – it’s a great skill set.”

Then there’s the house-made mortadella (served with devilled eggs and pickles) you can nurse at Alma’s with a Hemingway Daiquiri or riffs on classic New Orleans cocktails, including the Ramos Gin Fizz and Vieux Carre. “I’d also recommend the flatbread and the whipped cod roe dip to start,” says McGlone.

Meanwhile, wood-fired prawns are enhanced with lardo, paprika oil and rosemary; grilled wagyu rib-cap skewers come with mustard and pickles; and King George whiting is teamed with a crab and tomato sauce. “The line-caught whiting is coming direct from Port Lincoln,” says Sasi. “We’re trying to shorten the supply lines.”

The duo wanted to pay tribute to Chefs’ Warehouse tenure in the building, where it survived a fire, and an explosion in a neighbouring building that blew out its windows. To this end, the supply store’s giant whisk adornment has been reimagined as a door handle. They’ve also left the classic bones of the building intact, including a sign eagle-eyed diners may spot, pointing to the old Chefs’ Warehouse showroom.

Lunch Thursday-Sunday; dinner daily

111-115 Albion Street, Surry Hills; instagram.com/bessies.restaurant