Hey Sydney, get out from under the doona and have a feed at this fine new Frenchie

A newly refurbished Strand Hotel is home to a hip new bistro that should be holding its own — only Sydneysiders would rather stay tucked up in bed on a Friday night.

Because there is no amount of excess that cannot be made better with a Philly cheesesteak, your humble correspondent found himself on Crown Street on a recent rainy Friday around midnight asking a simple question: “Where the hell is everybody?”

“Sir, they are all at home in their pyjamas,” came the reply from the gent behind the counter.

Just then one of his machines went PING!

“You see, sir? There is another one.”

This column asked the question because not two hours before we were enjoying a dessert of cognac and oh alright, sure, one more cognac at the new-ish bistro at the Strand Hotel in the once spectacularly seedy William Street zone just down from the Cross.

It’s a place that should by all rights be absolutely humming, having been done up recently by the Public Hospitality Group.

The Strand Bistro serves the type of French food Sydneysiders love.

It serves the sort of French bistro food Sydney absolutely loves, and does it really well.

This is a town that has more steak tartares and chicken liver parfaits than Rome has carbonaras, so it is hard for them to stand out.

While the former came as a perfectly workable pile of chopped meat nicely accented with charred onions and mushrooms that were perhaps a little pickled (the memory is slightly hazy on the subject as we were too) the parfait was light and airy as a Kamala Harris speech but twice as filling.

That’s a good thing, by the way.

This was our second visit and while we vowed to go beyond the veal (Holstein style, schnitzel’d with a fried egg and capers and anchovies) this column is nothing if not a creature of habit. We promise next time to branch out and do the duck piece.

Oh, and the wine list is entirely reasonable with plenty of decent picks at decent markups.

The Strand Bistro has a warm, classic fitout. Picture: Lauren Gray

Our party was feeling expansive and swung in behind a $125 Burgundy (a bit of Moillard Grivot Savigny-les-Beaunes for those keeping score at home) but there were plenty of good bottles for half that.

Add to that a warm and classic fitout, friendly service, the fact that they don’t close their kitchen at nursing home hours and, for some reason, a DJ and one would think this was Sydney finally cracking the late night bistro code once and for all.

And yet.

We’ll get the duck leg pie next time, promise. Picture: Lauren Gray

Over the course of a couple of hours there were maybe four or five other tables turned. Most seats sat empty.

A post-dinner wander revealed much the same thing: A hipster bar that served us a number of cocktails including one, appropriately if not insultingly, called “The Suited Douche” was doing decent trade but the streets were empty.

Maybe our new friend and the cheesesteak joint was right and Sydneysiders are so sweet we worry about melting in the rain.