In the lead up to Christmas, a once rowdy wharfie pub on Sussex Street has quietly re-emerged as a five-level world of Greek feasts, rooftop sunsets, disco balls and dark velvet lounges. At The Bristol, you do not just book a table. You plan an entire night under one roof.
Housed in the heritage-listed Bristol Arms Hotel, originally built in 1898, The Bristol at 81 Sussex Street is one of the latest projects from creative director and designer Paul Papadopoulos of DS17 and chef Peter Conistis, the long-time standard-bearer of modern Greek dining in Australia.
Once known for its Retro nightclub and old-school pub energy, the building has been stripped back and reimagined as “an old world pub reimagined” with five distinct venues stacked one above the other: Bristol Sports on the lower ground floor, Ela Ela at The Bristol at ground level, Calypso nightclub on level one, Midtown cocktail bar on level two and a sunlit rooftop that feels part Mykonos, part St Tropez.
“The intent was always to create differing senses of design, food and culture through all the levels,” Papadopoulos says. “You can arrive by lunch, be immersed and leave the venue in the early hours of the morning. A multi level offering under one roof with food created by culinary genius Peter Conistis.”
He describes The Bristol as “an old world pub re imagined” and “a little European metropolis of food, design, culture and entertainment. Why leave?”
An old soul with a new vertical rhythm
When the former Bristol Arms and Retro nightclub never reopened after the pandemic, the owners approached DS17 with a simple brief: keep the heritage, rethink everything else.
“We wanted to buck the trend and the stereotypical pub,” Papadopoulos says. “We changed the name from the 'Bristol Arms' to just call it 'The Bristol', which became a little bit more cool, and worked through an esteemed offering. The idea was always to have five different experiences over the five levels.”
For Papadopoulos, whose DS17 studio has shaped some of Australia’s most recognisable hospitality spaces, from Ammos at Brighton Le Sands to Nour in Surry Hills and the award-winning Beta Bar, The Bristol was “almost the perfect campus” for storytelling in three dimensions.
“We still had to keep part of the history of the building, the facade and that significance,” he explains. “But inside, each level has a different offering and different space, with its own look and feel, while still talking to the building as a whole.”
At the heart of that story is his long-running collaboration with Conistis. The pair have worked together on Alpha, Beta, Ammos and now Ela Ela at The Bristol, with more to come.
Ela Ela at The Bristol – a modern mezedopolio in the city
On the ground floor, Ela Ela at The Bristol is the culinary anchor of the building and the latest expression of Conistis’ Greek food philosophy.
“In the restaurant, I wanted to have that mezedopolio feel, like a meze restaurant,” he says. “Lots of sharing, people can enjoy, have some drinks, have some bites of food, and just spend a few hours and enjoy the whole conviviality of it. That was the vibe for Ela Ela.”
The name itself is a warm Greek invitation.
“‘Ela, ela’ is like ‘come, come here, come enjoy’,” Conistis says. “It is so universal in the Greek language. It can mean ‘come, sit, where have you been?’ and that is the feeling we wanted.”
The menu reads like a greatest hits list for anyone who has followed his career. There is a spanakopita that he describes as “purist - mum’s recipe”, and a new take on his famous scallop moussaka.
“That is one dish that I am loving,” he says. “It is the fire roasted scallops, a take on my signature scallop moussaka, where we have taken all the elements of that dish and turned it on its head. We now do a whole fire roasted scallop that is layered with smoked eggplants and layers of fried eggplant and taramasalata and a little fennel and tomato salad on top. So there is everything that is inside my classic moussaka, just done a little more casually.”
For the undecided, the feast menu is the simplest way to experience the breadth of the kitchen.
“On the feast, there are definitely all the dishes that I really want to showcase in the restaurant,” he says. “You are getting a bite of everything.”
Although The Bristol comes alive at night with its multilevel offering, Ela Ela at The Bristol also serves the daytime CBD crowd with its “Ela Express” lunch menu, $39 per person from Tuesday to Thursday, perfect for workers wanting a real meal instead of a rushed desk sandwich.
Rooftop – St Tropez meets Mykonos above Sussex Street
If Ela Ela is the heart of The Bristol, the rooftop is its exhale.
“The inspiration was to create a unique space,” Papadopoulos says. “Our storytelling was St Tropez meets Mykonos. The Mykonos vibe of sunset nights and entertainment which left you wanting more. Fresh and full of life was the space which made it exciting.”
He calls the look “Myconian modernism”, with soft pinks that nod to a Santorini sunset, white linens and an easy, coastal palette.
“When those doors open from the lift, you go, ‘Wow, I have been transported into something that is seen on a European canvas mood board’,” he says. “If you are there all day, you see the sun then you change through the sunset and the time of the day, through music, through life, people drinking.”
For Conistis, the rooftop brief was different again.
“Because of that open space and how beautiful and sunny it gets up there, it is all about drinks and more sharing,” he says. “A bit more like a souvlaki bar, because there are meats on the grill and skewers, but there are lots of little bites as well. It is very much more of a place to hang out and have some drinks and some bites of food on the rooftop, a lot more casual in a sense.”
Across summer, the rooftop is also home to Bristol Brunch Co., a series of ticketed brunch parties that fold neatly into Sydney’s festive season calendar. For $89 a head, guests get a three-hour experience with a shared brunch menu, two hours of bottomless drinks, live entertainment and reserved seating. Many of the dates have already sold out, signalling the appetite for daytime rooftop events that feel more European seaside than CBD office block.
Midtown – New York mood, Sydney ease
Two floors down, level two houses Midtown, a cocktail bar that deliberately shifts the energy from bright rooftop to after-dark intimacy.
“It is a beautiful space,” Papadopoulos says. “It has got all the velvets and all the dark hues and colours. The inspiration came through an underground bar or backstreet of New York somewhere. Everything was lounge style, dark, intimate spaces, the dark hues and aubergines, purples coming through. People love it as a bar.”
One of his quiet design decisions was to keep the bar itself low.
“We made the bar one metre high so it is not a barrier,” he explains. “You see the barman and bar people working through that space. Then you have got Midtown and you have got Little Midtown, which is another little private space. So, again, a different offering through that level.”
In operation, that translates to late-night cocktails, live DJs and, on certain nights, performances at the grand piano. As the venue describes it, Midtown is “where good drinks, great tunes and even better company come together”, a shift from the formality of a restaurant to something more fluid. DJs spin disco and classics from Thursday to Saturday, with the room morphing from refined cocktail bar to lively late-night venue as the evening wears on.
Calypso and Bristol Sports – nostalgia and new rituals
On level one, Calypso picks up the baton from the building’s Retro past without falling into pure nostalgia.
“If we go to the next level, which is Calypso nightclub, it was an extension of what the modern-day Retro used to be,” Papadopoulos says. “But again, we wanted to do something a little bit different, as an event space slash club where it becomes a different feel.”
That difference is most obvious overhead.
“I think we installed 330 or 340 disco balls in the roof,” he says. “A full vibrant element, and I think that is in the Guinness book of records as the most disco balls in a venue as small as that space.”
The design references Studio 54 and the 1960s and 1970s without feeling like a theme bar. As the team behind the venue puts it, Calypso is “the pure nightclub experience, where the night is alive, the sound is all encompassing, bonds are made and the extraordinary is made possible.”
Below ground, Bristol Sports pays deliberate homage to the building’s pub roots. It is the most traditional of the spaces, complete with a huge 11 metre screen showing sport and racing, TAB facilities, pool table and a focus on local craft beers and classic cocktails.
“We are proud to be one of Sydney’s favourite local pubs since 1898,” the venue notes. “No matter where you sit, you will not miss a moment of the action.”
Designing for feeling, not just for looks
The Bristol sits squarely in the continuum of Papadopoulos’ three-decade career. He founded DS17 in the early 1990s, started his design firm at 22 with “$600 to my name”, and has since worked on projects from the first Versace Hotel to global restaurant brands and hidden city bars. He has taught design and architecture, launched a hospitality-focused brand called Table Talker and built a studio whose philosophy is simple: make spaces that people remember.
“For us, design is not about what you see, it is about what you feel,” he says. “You can have the most beautiful space in the world, but if it does not work it is useless. Every project should leave you with a feeling that you do not forget.”
At The Bristol, that means workflows that make sense to the kitchen and bar teams as much as statement lighting or sculptural arches.
“The process ultimately for us is always about understanding the brief and the requirement from a food aesthetic and an overall delivery from an operational perspective,” he explains. “We meet with Chef and operations before we start putting pen to paper. From there, we sit with the stakeholders, bar guys, kitchen guys, to put that in place. Discussions are always around a sketch or a rethink or a challenge. We spend hours to understand the storytelling behind each single level. That is where the magic starts.”
One building, many nights
For Conistis, who has cooked at the Athens Olympics, opened some of Sydney’s most influential Greek restaurants and still dismisses the “Godfather of Greek” moniker as something “others have said”, The Bristol is another chance to bring Greek hospitality into a new setting.
“The whole feel was just meant to be more relaxed and chilled,” he says of the building. “Come in, have a meal, have some drinks, travel throughout the levels. That is what I love about it.”
In practical terms, that means a Christmas season where an office lunch at Ela Ela can roll into rooftop cocktails, a stop at Midtown and, for some, a late finish at Calypso without ever setting foot in a taxi.
For Papadopoulos, that circularity is the point.
“It is a multi level offering under one roof,” he says again, “with food created by culinary genius Peter Conistis. An old world pub re imagined. A little European metropolis of food, design, culture and entertainment. Why leave?”
To experience The Bristol, or to book a table:
Website: www.thebristol.com.au
Email: info@thebristol.com.au
Phone: +61 2 9556 3131
Address: 81 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Read also: Chef Peter Conistis, The Godfather of Greek
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