Harry Stockdale-Powell in new Bridge Street venture

How many ex-Rockpool chefs can squeeze into one dining strip? Bridge Street in the Sydney CBD needs to make room for one more, with Rockpool kitchen graduate Harry Stockdale-Powell opening Bouche on Bridge opposite the Rockpool mothership.

Another member of the Rockpool alumni [Ross Lusted] is already up the hill at The Bridge Room. Stockdale-Powell has appointed head sommelier Seamus Brandt [ex Rockpool Bar & Grill] to help swing open the doors at Bouche on Bridge in early August at the former site of a hairdressing salon, a space both Neil Perry and the owners of Salaryman were tipped at different times to take.

"It'll be sharing food, but I'll be trying to maintain the standards of the places I've worked at," says Stockdale-Powell who trained at a Michelin-star restaurant in England. "The building oozes craftsmanship. It'll have its own basement bar. There's a mezzanine and an open kitchen, so it'll be like going to a performance," he says.