Between their casual eatery chain Salt Meats Cheese, late-night Roman-inspired restaurant Eterna and newly open trio La Costa, Cielo Rooftop Bar and La Valle, Stefano di Blasi and Edoardo Perlo have a lot of irons in the fire. Despite boasting a jam-packed portfolio, the local foodie moguls have found time in their busy schedules to add one more venue to their collection. This Wednesday will mark the opening of The Parlour, Stefano and Edorardo’s newest addition to the multifaceted hospitality hub based in and around Foresters Hall in Fortitude Valley. When the duo teamed up with the Maybe Sammy crew to launch La Costa and Cielo in late 2020, they recruited a murderers’ row of local bar talent to execute the extensive cocktail list. With combined experience slinging sips at notable institutions such as The Gresham, Savile Row, Suzie Wong’s Good Time Bar and Cobbler, Stefano and Edorardo figured that this team of tip-top tapsters needed a cocktail-focused outlet that could better showcase their prodigious talents. To do this, the team has transformed the La Costa Bar space into a speakeasy-style haunt that, like its sibling venues, draws its conceptual base from the Ligurian Coast – the home of Italy’s famed riviera. Whereas the other venues reflect aspects of Liguria’s natural splendour, The Parlour taps into the region’s historical association with celebrities and artists – particularly American and British expats – throughout the 20th century. Now-iconic destinations such as Portofino, Sanremo and Cinque Terre earned their world-famous status thanks to the continued patronage of literary figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway and jet-setting Hollywood stars such as Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant, who would make regular pilgrimages to get a taste of la dolce vita. The Parlour is an ode to Liguria’s golden-age of glamour and leisurely luxury, with an aesthetic overhaul (heavy green curtains, cushy leather booths and banquettes, frosted windows, mood lighting, and a disco ball) helping to create a sense of elegant escapism in the heart of Fortitude Valley.

The brains trust at Maybe Sammy has once again devised a fresh list of multi-sensory cocktails tailor-made for the venue, this time taking literary works as inspiration. Volume one of the menu includes adventurous signatures such as the Fenhurst (gin, crème de pêche, Lillet Rouge, citrus, coconut, clarified and a citrus bubble), Sense & Sensibility (whiskey, lemon myrtle-smoked leatherwood honey, lemon bitters and lemon myrtle) and The Rebel (cognac, cacao, coffee liqueur, bitters, white-chocolate ganache, min and coffee dust) as well as classic twists like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (whisky, Antica Formula infusion, Amaro Montenegro, orgeat, absinthe, Peychaud’s bitters, watermelon radish and an edible flower) and the Morning Song (gin, lavender liqueur, herb-and-lemon oleo, prosecco, vanilla atomisation and silver leaf). The wine list boasts Tuscan sangiovese and pinot grigio from Veneto alongside rieslings from the Margaret River, skin-contact whites from the Barossa Valley and Yarra Valley pinot noirs, while local craft beers and Italian brews from Estrella are available on tap and in tins. Soon a martini and oyster cart will be on hand to prepare, garnish and finish sips at your table. With La Costa and its bounty of large-format feeds just next door, The Parlour’s food menu leans more towards snacking – paprika-spiced calamari, thinly sliced beef carpaccio, gin-and-beetroot-cured salmon bruschetta and charcuterie and cheese boards will help prime the pump before dinner or satiate any late-night hankerings.

The Parlour will softly open to the public on Wednesday May 19 – head to the Stumble Guide for more info.