The Carrington goes Guatemalan

The Drink'n'Dine group continues to rewrite the script on Sydney pubs, with plans to open a restaurant early next year called Madame Mofongo at the Carrington in Surry Hills modelled on a Guatemalan grandma's kitchen.

''It'll be like sitting at mama's place while she cooks you mofongo and you drink rum and papaya juice,'' Drink'n'Dine owner Jaime Wirth says.

''It's the pub's old manager's apartment, so we are going to keep that format of kitchen, bedroom and living room. The kitchen will be the bar, so you will sit at the kitchen bench eating and drinking, or a grab a table in what used to be the bedroom or living room.''

The planned restaurant is just one of several ideas that illustrate how far Sydney hotels have come since the era of the 6 o'clock swill. Next month, Drink'n'Dine's Redfern pub, the Norfolk, opens House of Crabs, a restaurant Wirth describes as ''Louisiana crab shack meets Coney Island seafood hut''.

In Petersham, they've taken the Oxford Tavern, best known for its noon strip shows. In November, it'll reopen as an American barbecue joint with a beer-barn vibe and late-night honky-tonk saloon.

''We've put a grand piano on the old stripper stage,'' he says.

Wirth ''flew solo'' after the death in January of his business partner, James Miller, but has now recruited a supporting team, including design consultant Mike Delany, who has relocated from Melbourne.