B.S. Pasta Palace opened on Friday, July 7 − but don’t expect the Surry Hills arrival to slavishly worship all things Italian. Its owners see it more at the crossroads of Italy and the US.

Are they talking American-Italian in the vein of 1996 film Big Night, or more of a suburban Everybody Loves Raymond take?

“I liken it more to Little Italy, in New York, where there would be a pizza by the slice next door,” says co-owner Greg Bampton. Spaghetti meatballs? Tick. Garlic bread? Tick. Minestrone soup? Tick.

But there are other twists and turns on the compact menu. You can snack on potato scallop with anchovy, and when the food historians look back at Sydney menus they’ll ponder the ubiquitousness of burrata in the 2020s. B.S. Pasta Palace serves its burrata with honey. You won’t find B.S.’s prawn cannelloni on every New York street, either, or an eggplant “parm”.

B.S. Pasta Palace is the first move in a recalibration from the duo behind popular Surry Hills eatery, Bar Suze. In August, they’ll open Caravin in Potts Point, where Bampton’s business partner, Phil Stenvall, will focus on French flavours rather than the Scandinavian bent explored at Bar Suze. They’ve closed Bar Suze, opening B.S. (the name a reference to Bar Suze) in its place, calculating there’s a gap in market for a freewheeling pasta joint with some NYC DNA.

The old Bar Suze site has been scrubbed with a new paint job, and a mural of its logo painted by Bampton himself. “There’s a black and red theme. It’s a little bit rock 𝄒n𝄒 roll,” Bampton says.

Open Wed-Sat dinner.

54 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills, 0431 180 389