The handsome sandstone building Rockpool restaurant occupied for 25 years at The Rocks has sat empty since its last tenant departed in 2022. Now the George Street site is headed for a restaurant rebirth, with the owner of Leichhardt stalwart Grappa opening an Italian restaurant.

Restaurateur Charlie Colosi, who has successfully steered Grappa on Leichhardt’s fickle Norton Street for 25 years, was on the lookout for an iconic site for his next venture, and 107-109 George Street surely deserves a blue plaque for its role in Australian food history.

Neil Perry took up residence in 1989, and traded there continuously until 2014, albeit with a brief name change in 2007 − we remember you, Rockpool (fish). The hospitality students at William Blue College trod its boards until 2022, when they also left the building.

Colosi hasn’t finalised a name, but has settled on Italian cuisine. And he’s drafted in architect Vince Squillace (Hugos Manly, Shaffa) to recraft the space.

The ramp and terraced dining spaces of the original Rockpool are still there, but Squillace says they’ll make way for a redesign that reveals the building’s mid-1850s sandstone.

“We’re stripping back and starting again,” he says.

Colosi will join a precinct attracting a new breed of hospitality operators. Swillhouse, the team behind Hubert and Alberto’s Lounge, opened Le Foote last year, not far from Mikey Enright and Julian Train’s distillery and dining room start-up, Hickson House.

Aiming to create a restaurant that feels simultaneously international and Sydney, Colosi mightn’t have finalised a name, but he does have an opening timeframe. “Early next year,” he says.