Darling Glebe Opens at Historic Darling Mills with Martini Lounge and Wine Cave

Chef Jeff Schroeter has opened Darling Glebe at the Darling Mills site on Glebe Point Road, his second run at the historic address after operating Beckett's here from 2021 to 2024.

The 100-seat brasserie is carved into five sandstone rooms below street level. Original features include vaulted ceilings from Edmund Blackett's St John's Church, convict-chipped sandstone walls and tables crafted from a single 13-metre coachwood tree.

Each room has its own character: velvet colonnades, vintage cut crystal, and hand-etched glass.

The Ferrari Martini Lounge is named for Roman-born master stonemason Sergio Ferrari, who spent over 12 years excavating and hand-building the site.

Award-winning bartender Charlie Ainsbury oversees the curved bar, where Schroeter's cult Chef's Martini is back on the cocktail list. Start or end your evening here — the lounge is designed as a bookend to dinner.

The main dining room centres on white-clothed wooden tables commissioned more than 30 years ago and crafted from a single 13-metre coachwood tree.

Schroeter's menu reflects four decades across Michelin-starred kitchens, including London's The Savoy, The Royalton Hotel in New York and Sydney's Bistro Moncur and Bayswater Brasserie. He's cooked privately for the late Queen Elizabeth II, Anna Wintour and Madonna.

"It's 40 years of discipline and instinct moving between kitchens around the world and bringing it home," Schroeter says. "I'm still on the pans every night because that's where the joy is for me. Cooking with care and serving people something they'll enjoy."

The menu features oyster Rockefeller made from a revived 130-year-old recipe alongside Schroeter signatures: escargot en cocotte with puff pastry lid (known as snail pie), strawberry foie gras (a happy kitchen accident turned classic) and duck à l'orange enhanced with orange kumquat glaze and Archie Rose Sunrise Lime Gin.

Produce comes directly from Darling Mills Farm, still owned by the founding Adey family. Schroeter occasionally dips into their 35-year-old cookbook.

On Wednesday and Thursday nights, Schroeter runs a French omakase chef's table for up to four guests. The bespoke experience is shaped around each table's tastes, and whatever rare produce is available that day.

"On quieter nights, it's such a pleasure to take the time to talk to guests, understand their palate and their threshold for experimentation, and create something completely for them," he says. "The thrill is in the creativity and sharing the stories with the table, whether it's one person dining solo or a close-knit group."

Downstairs, a purpose-built wine cave holds up to 2,800 bottles. The collection will grow over time.

Surrounding the cave is the Adey Private Wine Cellar, named for Darling Mills founder Dr Alfred Adey, a function space and bar seating up to 60 guests.

Upstairs, the Dybka Room seats eight and features two original etched-glass windows by former Lalique, Baccarat and Orrefors glass artist Anne Dybka OAM.

Look closely and you'll spot 100-year-old hand-painted art deco bread plates and vintage Hermès Papillon bow ties on the waitstaff.

"The bow ties aren't really a uniform," Schroeter says. "They're a wink, a little something that lets people smile when their waiter arrives at the table."