The Company We Keep

As hospitality groups grow, their venues can begin to resemble one another: the same visual language, menu logic or proven formula carried from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. The Goodies Hospitality, one of Sydney’s best-loved restaurant groups and LEIF partner, has taken a different approach. Across Bar Copains, Bessie’s & Alma’s, Vin-Cenzo’s and its latest opening, La Buvette, there is a shared spirit but no prescribed house style. Each venue has its own rhythm, history and reason for being.

Founded by Sali and Nathan Sasi and Morgan McGlone, The Goodies has grown from a single wine bar into a small, deliberately assembled collection of inner-city venues — distinct in character, yet unmistakably related. We spoke with founder Sali Sasi about meaningful names, table choices and Ottolenghi’s favourite Comté Custard Tart.

True Colours

There are certain details that belong almost exclusively to an Australian beach holiday — sand that finds its way into every shoe, a sunburn that defies SPF logic, losing the sticky-hand battle with a melting ice cream, or returning from the beach with nowhere else to be.

These moments — rather than any prescribed idea of ‘coastal’ design — are what Melbourne interior architecture studio Pasquale Cook wanted to capture at The Roy, a newly refreshed 24-room hotel in Rainbow Beach and treasured LEIF Partner.

Photography by Jordan Malane

Amaro Hour

Chapel Street has never been short on places to eat. The imperative, then, is to stand out in a city awash with restaurants, wine bars and late-night spaces. Enter Studio Amaro, the Italian dining room and basement bar from Melbourne hospitality group Commune. A partner of LEIF, the venue reflects a shared appreciation for atmosphere, tactility and the way material choices shape the diner’s experience. We sat down with Studio Amaro’s interior designer, Wendy Bergman of Bergman & Co., to chat materiality, mood and the making of a memorable dining room.

Photography by Tom Blachford