Inspired by Australian hospitality, local ingredients and bistro-style cooking, the young owners of a new Carlton restaurant want to revive a forgotten genre: the Aussie bistro.

Bistra combines British, Italian and French food influences with a casual yet refined atmosphere that its owners say draws on inner-Sydney pubs – like The Four in Hand, The Bellevue and The Grand National – in their 1990s heyday.

“‘Australian bistro’ is our opportunity to look inwards at all those cuisines and how they’ve informed bistro-style offerings in Australia,” says co-owner Joseph Ho.

Ho has partnered with fellow wine and service professionals Henry Crawford and Alexei Taheny-Macfarlane on the 60-seater, which occupies a Carlton terrace and has dining rooms upstairs and downstairs, with timber and terracotta details and white linen tablecloths.

The trio hopes Bistra – with its wide-ranging a la carte menu (including a cheeseburger) and beers on tap – will attract everyone from solo diners to families celebrating birthdays.

Californian-born chef Alex Nishizawa (ex-Attica, Bar Liberty, Falco) has created a menu that blends the classics with comfort. Entrees include onion soup with comte croutons, tempura-battered king prawns with pickled ginger and macadamia, and baked scallops with parsley butter.

A main of Sommerlad chicken (sourced from Cherry Tree Organics) takes the unglamorous breast and teams it with charred baby leek, chicken jus and bagna cauda.

“We were talking about chicken breasts on the opening menu,” says Crawford. “Is it a little bit too old-school, is a little bit naff?”

But old-school comfort is the goal, right through dessert, which could be rhubarb and gooseberry trifle, or cream-filled profiteroles with chocolate and raspberry sauce.

The most radical thing on the menu is the bread: crusty sourdough loaves baked in-house and served with cultured Schulz butter, free of charge – a rarity in restaurants these days.

“We felt like it was crucial to the pitch of Bistra: great bread made in-house … and everyone gets it at the start of the meal, without asking for it,” says Taheny-Macfarlane.

The three owners have been connected to the wine industry for about 15 years, either selling, making, buying or serving wine. Their list contains 450 bottles, many from their personal collections, with a strong showing of Australian and Victorian labels (such as Mount Mary) alongside Italian reds, German riesling, and wines from Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Ho’s partner Pip McCully (Studio Wonder) has designed the venue, prioritising natural light, a palette of soft greens and greys, and mid-century touches like zinc bartops. Floating above the ground-floor dining room is a mirror on the underside of the stairs, reflecting the hubbub below.

Two- and three-course prix-fixe lunch menus will be available Friday to Sunday.

Open Wed-Thu 5.30pm-10pm, Fri-Sat noon-10pm, Sun noon-5pm.

157 Elgin Street, Carlton, 03 9000 5607, bistracarlton.com.au