Powerhouse Sydney hospitality venues Fabbrica and Maybe Frank are headed to Annandale, opening side by side next month in the Public Hospitality-owned Empire Hotel on Parramatta Road. The pub will revert to its original name from the 1890s, The Federal.

Public Hospitality’s executive director of business development, Vince Lombardo, says they’ll fly the tricolour flag in an area that has lost a little of its lustre for Italian food.

The Love Tilly Group-owned Fabbrica already has links with Public Hospitality. In March, it opened a pasta bar in Public’s Exchange Hotel in Balmain.

“Fabbrica has done really well in Balmain,” Lombardo says. “We think the collaboration in Annandale is excellent. It’ll sit nicely beside the pizza at Maybe Frank.”

Lombardo hopes the injection of new eateries will help re-energise the neighbourhood’s Italian DNA. “When I was a kid, Italian families came from all over Sydney because it was the most authentic food the city had. It was Italian on this side of Parramatta Road, but it feels like it stood still.”

One example of this can be found at the Italian Forum in Leichhardt, just a few minutes’ drive from The Federal. At its peak, the Forum was home to more than a dozen Italian eateries, high fashion stores and an impressive fountain. When it sold earlier this year, it was reported only a few venues remained open and the fountain ran intermittently due to a leak.

The sprawling Federal pub is certainly well placed for an Italian reboot. The 80-seat Fabbrica Pasta Bar in Annandale will deliver its signature artisan pasta, along with a wine list from Love Tilly owner Matt Swieboda.

In a separate space, the 66-seat Maybe Frank, a transplant of the Randwick original, will centre its offering on pizza from a wood-fired oven, antipasti and classic Italian cocktails.

“We’re really excited about bringing our spaghetti cacio e pepe and cotoletta alla Milanese to another one of our favourite neighbourhoods,” Swieboda says.

Public Hospitality executive chairman Jon Adgemis says both Fabbrica Pasta Bar Balmain and Maybe Frank Randwick are established neighbourhood eateries that resonate well with their communities.

“Combining them under one roof at The Federal will create a diverse experience in food and drink for the suburb,” he says.

And in a move that will excite Sydneysiders who enjoy a little Fellini with their football, a third venue will squeeze into The Federal: an Italian sports bar.

“There’ll be Italian sports stars on the walls, and when the giant screen isn’t showing Serie A or local sport, [it] will run old black and white Italian films from the 1950s and 1960s,” Lombardo says.

Public Design Studio tackled the interiors at Fabbrica Pasta Bar Annandale, and also collaborated with design shop Luchetti Krelle on Maybe Frank Annandale. Architect collective Co:Aika oversaw The Federal’s boutique accommodation.

The venues will open at 103 Parramatta Road, Annandale, in late October.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the Town Hall Hotel in Balmain. It’s been updated to say The Exchange Hotel.