What’s going on in there?

If you’ve wandered down James Street and spied the colour and shapes that swell and shift beyond Penelope’s fluted glass then, congratulations, that’s exactly how Coats Group intended it. This clever new bistro sticks out on the strip precisely because, on first impression, it looks like it’s not trying to.

“There are so many venues in which to be seen on James Street. This is something a bit different,” says Katie Coats, who co-founded Coats Group with husband Jason Coats. “To hide away, have dinner, come in and enjoy yourself, but also almost not actually know you’re here as well.

“It’s creating different experiences within the same infrastructure depending on the time of day,” adds group general manager Josh Mitchell. “The whole point of having the retractable glass is that we can have it open on an afternoon, but when the time comes, you know we can close it all up and have a different personality.”

Coats Group has form with this sort of thing. It operates Maya, the Fortitude Valley rooftop bar that effortlessly transforms from elevated, breezy Mexican eatery during the day into a heaving night spot after dark, but also Il Molo in Bulimba. These are different venues doing different things at different times of day, and in different parts of the city. It’s a hard trick to pull off.

“We probably looked at 12 different spaces before this came up,” Coats says about Penelope’s James Street premises, which sit a few steps below the James Street footpath, and previously played host to Bar Tano. “When this came up, we felt it really leant into that drinking, dining and dancing den.”

“It’s on James Street, but at an end of James Street that’s recently been gentrified, with Fat Cow coming in and Cru Bar being renovated. It felt like it was the right moment,” Mitchell says.

In charge of design was Z Architects. Working to a specific brief, Z has captured the feel of a 1960s or ’70s European supper club, with timber wall panelling, marble counters, large pendant lights and heavy drapery.

Much like Bar Tano before it, Penelope is gathered around a central bar, but it makes more of the delineation between its drinking and dining areas, the latter featuring carpet and softly furnished banquettes and chairs to dial down the noise and up the intimacy.

For food, Coats Group executive chef Evan White is overseeing a relatively straightforward menu that’s split into house-made charcuterie, snacks, small plates and mains. Think bistro classics, but often with an imaginative twist.

Snacks include blistered shishitos with confit lemon tahini, a fish finger sandwich with tartare, and natural oysters served with a champagne and strawberry mignonette.

Smaller plates include the usual suspects such as a crudo and a beef tartare, but also lamb ribs served with olive jam and cucumber, and chicken tenders with buttermilk ranch, and hot honey.

Among the larger dishes there’s steak frites finished with a cognac and green peppercorn sauce, pasta alla vodka that’s been spiked with ’nduja and stracciatella, and dry-aged duck with an orange glaze, golden beetroot and parsnip.

“It’s the sort of food you want to eat socially,” Mitchell says. “Classic bistro food with a lot of nostalgia, but you can also taste a second layer there that’s new and interesting.”

Similarly, the drinks are kept tight, with classic cocktails with a twist – including a Martini menu – and a 100-bottle (more or less) wine list that favours European drops.

It all adds up to something that, in lesser hands, might have been considered overly simple. But under the Coats Group’s watch, Penelope instead feels focused and refined. It’s a welcome addition to James Street.

Open Wed-Thu 5pm-late, Fri-Sun 12pm-late

15 James Street, Fortitude Valley, (07) 34733588

penelopebistro.com.au