With a never-ending procession of new Sydney restaurants, one of the beautiful aspects of the conveyor belt of openings is the resuscitation of old buildings. New air is breathed into old lungs, and they’re gifted a new purpose.

Stanton & Co, owned by the Parlour Group (Riley Street Garage, The Village Inn, Surly’s) is housed on the first floor of Rosebery’s The Cannery. Once home to Rosella Soup, now a menagerie of food outlets are stirring the suburb’s pot.

The largest is the first-floor 240-seat restaurant and bar named for Richard Stanton, who developed Rosebery into an industrial zone a century ago.

The cavernous peeled-back dining room showcases metal rafters, exposed brick of yesteryear and a restaurant cum- saloon feel. It’s got the look and the atmosphere down pat. A deep-set cocktail bar, worn leather booths, chef-counter dining and two designated dining areas provide the canvas for service that is a bit stretched at times. Stanton & Co may look the part, but the contemporary food by group executive chef Regan Porteous and head chef Marcelino Papio is a hit-and-miss affair.

They can cook, but I’d like to see them apply the handbrake to a tendency to overplay dishes to rich extremes. Big flavours don’t always equal great dishes. Tuna tartare with squid ink crisps on the side is lost in a lather of cloying cured egg yolk and rice puffs. Fried school prawns with a kimchi mayo make a great bar snack, but cheese-filled gyoza seems like the work of a university student on a budget. Beef carpaccio works well with the daikon and smoked garlic horseradish, but miso-coated lamb belly has barely a skerrick of meat on it, instead delivering a mouthful of fat. Crisp, crackling-skin pork knuckle saves the day, falls off the bone and benefits from the soy seededmustard sauce. There’s a lot to like about this place, but a little less intensity in each dish could go a long way.