Bar Benevento Sydney opens in Adina Town Hall Hotel
Brothers Anthony and Julian Izzillo pair with Kosta Papanikitas and chef Tim Fisher on a southern Italian all-day menu named for Bar Benevento Sydney's family roots.
Bar Benevento Sydney opens on the ground floor of the Adina Town Hall Hotel, a southern Italian all-day eatery on the corner of Kent and Bathurst streets in the CBD.
Brothers Anthony and Julian Izzillo run the venue with partner Kosta Papanikitas of The Fermantalists. Head chef Tim Fisher leads the kitchen. The Izzillos previously opened Wildfire and de Vine Food and Wine, also in Sydney.
Bar Benevento Sydney's menu and drinks
Named for the brothers' grandfather, who left Benevento for Australia in 1953.
The signature dish is ricotta and egg-yolk ravioli with Strega-infused hollandaise. The menu also runs to tagliata steak and eggs, a breakfast antipasto with six-minute egg and gravlax, chicken cotoletta and panini, plus a rotating weekly lunch special. Taralli are boiled, then baked like a bagel, and served warm for dipping.
The drinks list holds more than 300 amaro, sourced from producers worldwide, and a wine list spanning all 20 of Italy's wine regions, echoed by this year's Tre Bicchieri Veneto scores. Morning aperitivo cocktails built on Strega, a herbal liqueur that traces back to Benevento, sit alongside the coffee service. Tiramisu here swaps espresso for wild mint and saffron Strega.
"We've tried to create hero dishes that haven't been done in Sydney before," says Fisher, pointing to the taralli and the tiramisu as examples of that approach.
Bar Benevento takes its name from the town in Italy's Campania region where the Izzillo brothers' grandfather was born. "Our nonno came to Australia from Benevento in 1953, post war, and spent five years working and saving before he could bring our nonna, dad and uncle over," says co-owner Julian Izzillo.
A family history from Benevento
Anthony and Julian Izzillo built their reputations on Wildfire and de Vine Food and Wine before turning to their grandfather's hometown for this project. Papanikitas, whose Fermantalists business supplies amaro and fermented goods, joins them as a partner on the bar program. It follows Stanley's opening at Manly Wharf among 2026's larger Sydney launches.
The all-day format runs breakfast into lunch and aperitivo under one roof, with charcuterie and a cheese selection sitting alongside the pasta and panini. A dedicated dinner menu is still in development, and the current hours reflect that gap.
Bar Benevento Sydney currently serves breakfast, lunch, coffee, sweets and aperitivo. Weekday hours run 7am to 3pm, weekend hours 7am to 11:30am, and dinner service is described as coming soon.
