Schniti is now open on Ramsay Street in Haberfield

The Inner West venue changed its name and narrowed its menu to one thing, which was a bigger decision than it sounds. It is now open seven days.

217 Ramsay Street has been an Elements room since the group took it on, and for most of that time it ran a broad grill menu at a neighbourhood price. It now trades as Schniti, and the menu has been cut down to schnitzel and the things that belong next to it.

The reasoning is unglamorous. Haberfield already had a steakhouse fifteen minutes away in two directions, and the dish the kitchen was selling most of was the one people were driving in for. Narrowing the menu let the kitchen buy better, crumb to order rather than in advance, and pound the veal thin enough that it cooks in the time it should.

The room itself is much the same and the wine list has moved further into Italy. There is deliberately no separate private dining room at Haberfield: a smaller group sits at a long table inside the trading restaurant, and anyone who wants the place to themselves takes the whole venue. Full venue hire takes 130 seated or 180 standing, and it is the easiest whole venue in the group to get on a Saturday.

Schniti trades seven days, with dinner from 5:30 every night and lunch as well on Saturday and Sunday.