Beppi’s turns 70: Sydney dining institution honours its legacy through archive menu classics

This June, one of Australia’s most enduring and influential restaurants, Beppi’s, marks an extraordinary milestone: 70 years of continuous operation. Established in Darlinghurst in 1956, Beppi’s is more than one of the country’s oldest restaurants. It is a cultural institution that helped shape modern Australian dining, introducing generations of Sydneysiders to the depth, warmth and ritual of traditional Italian hospitality.

At a time when hospitality venues come and go, Beppi’s stands apart - a rare example of continuity, family ownership and enduring relevance.

“My father and mother Norma built Beppi’s with an extraordinary sense of hospitality, discipline and respect for tradition,” said Marc Polese. “His legacy is not just the restaurant itself, but the way generations of people have experienced it - through food, wine, service and a sense of occasion. My role now is to take Beppi’s into the future while preserving the classic elements that have made the formula so successful.”

70th Anniversary Menu: Classic Dishes from the Beppi’s Archives 

Long before Italian food became part of everyday Australian life, Beppi Polese was serving dishes unfamiliar to many local diners at the time - olive oil, handmade pasta, fresh seafood and regional Italian flavours. What was once rare is now central to the way Australians eat, shaping menus across the restaurant industry and helping define contemporary Australian dining.

To mark its 70th anniversary, Beppi’s will celebrate throughout June and July with a limited-time supplementary menu honouring the dishes, flavours and traditions that have defined the restaurant since 1956.

The anniversary menu pays tribute to iconic dishes loved by Beppi and Norma Polese, embraced by generations of guests, and woven into the restaurant’s enduring story.

The limited-time menu will feature a selection of classic entrées and mains drawn from the Beppi’s archives. At the heart of the menu is Zuppa di cozze, a signature dish from Beppi’s early years featuring mussels cooked in fish stock, wine, tomato, parsley and garlic. In the 1960’s, the dish was priced at seven shillings; for the anniversary celebration, Beppi’s will serve it at the equivalent price of $12.

Entrées will include Baccalà Mantecato, creamed salted cod served with crostini; Vitello Tonnato Freddo, cold roast veal thinly sliced and served with Beppi’s special tuna sauce and capers; and Carciofi alla Parmigiana con Piselli, fresh globe artichokes filled with mint, garlic and parmesan.

Mains will include Fegato alla Veneziana, calves’ liver sautéed with onions and served with soft polenta (a dish that has fallen out of mainstream menus though formerly a staple in fine-dining Italian restaurants); Cannelloni alla Beppi’s, handmade cannelloni crespelle filled with a rich beef ragù and baked with béchamel and tomato salsa; and Steak Diane, thinly sliced fillet steak pan-fried and served with garlic, butter, brandy and Worcestershire sauce - a dish that remains on the current Beppi’s menu.

Together, the dishes reflect the spirit of Beppi’s earliest menus: generous Italian cooking built on quality ingredients, regional flavours and respect for tradition. “In the early days, Beppi himself would source ingredients with remarkable ingenuity - harvesting mussels by hand from Sydney Harbour. While the scale and sourcing have evolved, the guiding principle at Beppi’s remains the same: exceptional ingredients, prepared simply, with care and respect for tradition,” said Marc Polese.

The broader Beppi’s menu continues to focus on seasonal, high-quality produce, pasta made in-house daily, premium Australian seafood and meats, and classic Italian techniques passed through generations. Daily specials further reflect the restaurant’s commitment to cooking with what is freshest and best available.

The Dining Room Where Sydney Gathered

Over seven decades, Beppi’s has quietly mirrored the story of modern Australia. It has long been a discreet Sydney meeting place, where deals were struck, relationships formed and moments of history unfolded over a shared table.

Beppi’s was also an instigator of the business power lunch in Sydney, helping define the long, generous, European-style midday dining ritual that became central to the city’s corporate, political and media culture.

Its signed guestbook reads like a roll call of global influence, with Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett, Jerry Lewis, Mick Jagger, Billy Joel, P!nk, Bono, Rihanna, Geoffrey Rush, Kerry Packer and Neil Armstrong among those who have dined at Beppi’s. Today, names such as Harry Triguboff, Anthony Albanese and Russell Crowe have all recently dined at Beppi’s.

From prime ministers including Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, John Howard and Paul Keating to Hollywood icons, business leaders and generations of loyal diners, Beppi’s has remained a trusted dining room - celebrated for its privacy, sense of occasion, consistency and enduring reputation.

A Wine Cellar 70 Years in the Making

A defining part of Beppi’s story is its extraordinary wine cellar,  one of the most significant restaurant cellars in Australia, built bottle by bottle over seven decades. Occupying the full back section of the restaurant, the cellar features dust-covered vintage bottles, timber racks and handwritten cellar notes. In its early years, many Italian varietals were unfamiliar to Australian palates, making Beppi’s an important gateway to introducing Italy’s wine culture.

Beppi’s was also the first restaurant to serve Penfolds Grange Hermitage, introducing Australian diners to what would become one of the country’s most celebrated wines. That pioneering spirit has continued through the generations, with the cellar today holding thousands of bottles and a depth of provenance rarely seen in Australian dining.

While the collection includes important Australian and international wines, Beppi’s is especially renowned for its rare and unmatched Italian selection. Its cellar holds exceptional depth across Italy’s great wine regions, many imported directly by Marc Polese, including aged Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, Amarone and Super Tuscan labels, alongside lesser-known regional treasures collected over many decades.

A Legacy That Continues

Today, Beppi’s is led by Marc Polese, Beppi’s son, who has carried the family business into its next chapter. Trained as a veterinary surgeon before entering the restaurant world, Marc assumed full control following his father’s passing in 2016, just prior to the restaurant’s 60th anniversary, and has since continued to safeguard the qualities that have made Beppi’s one of Sydney’s most enduring dining institutions.

Walking into Beppi’s is like stepping back in time. There is a deep sense of nostalgia in the dining room, almost like entering a private family portrait gallery or museum of the Polese family’s life in hospitality. Family portraits, artefacts and keepsakes collected over the decades adorn the walls, each one preserving a piece of the restaurant’s history. A poignant tribute to Beppi’s father, framed by the image of the oil burner stove, anchors the space with particular intimacy. Together, these details make the dining room feel less like a public restaurant and more like being welcomed into the family’s private home, where everything has been carefully preserved.

“Beppi’s has lasted 70 years because the formula works: quality, consistency, tradition and proper European-style hospitality,” said Marc Polese. “My responsibility is to protect that legacy while making sure the business remains strong for the future. We have always believed in doing things properly from the food, the wine, the service and the way guests are welcomed. Alongside the restaurant, we have diverse business interests, providing the stability to keep investing in Beppi’s and to continue running it with the same care and independence that has defined it from the beginning.”

What began as the vision of an Italian émigré couple remains a defining part of Sydney’s culinary identity - a restaurant built on family, ritual, generosity and an enduring belief in doing things well.

From Post-War Migration to Australian Icon

The story of Beppi Polese began in post-war Europe. In the early 1950s, he emigrated from Venice to Australia as part of a wave of migrants who would quietly reshape the country’s cultural fabric. Norma was born in Australia to Italian parents who had emigrated in the 1930s.

After marrying, the couple opened a small restaurant in Darlinghurst on 10 June 1956 that would come to be known, eponymously, as Beppi’s. Established the same year Australia broadcast its first live television program and Melbourne hosted the nation’s first Olympic Games, Beppi’s quickly became a place to see and be seen.

Through warmth, persistence and unmistakable hospitality, the Poleses introduced Sydney to a new way of dining: one grounded in tradition, generosity and ritual, with ingredients and cooking techniques then largely undiscovered by the Australian palate. Over time, Beppi’s became a cornerstone in the mainstream acceptance and enduring love of Italian food in Australia.

Beppi's Restaurant, 10^th June 2026