It’s hard not to feel hopeful when a 99-year old grand-dame boozer on the strip once dubbed “the boulevard of broken dreams” can be transformed into a pretty French bistro with a rooftop bar doing steak frites and spoonfuls of beluga caviar.

The newly refurbished The Strand Bistro sits on the corner of William and Crown streets. Head chef Alex Kavanagh has a food line-up that jumps from caviar with blinis, creme fraiche and chives ($135 for 30g oscietra and $155 for beluga), to corn and gruyere croquettes ($12) and duck leg pie ($42).

The chic interior has mosaic marble floors and dark wood panelling, there’s a fire burning at one end and bi-fold doors are ready to be flung open to William St. They are not flung while we are there, however, and we are thankful. A French bistro opening to a quiet Parisian square is one thing, while opening to a five-lane city oesophagus of cars is another.

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It is a strange place to put a bistro, yes. But plans are under way to transform The Strand further with a rooftop bar and 17-room boutique hotel, which will soon open in the building’s middle floors and include a library and communal working spaces.

The bistro menu offers a fuss-free take on French classics. Kick off with thin fingers of pissaladiere ($8) – strips of buttery pastry topped with sweet, caramelised onion and Ortiz anchovy. Hiramasa kingfish ($23) comes thinly sliced, doused with olive oil and dotted with spoonfuls of finely chopped preserved lemon, green olives and capers.

Steak tartare ($22) with slightly charred onion segments and shimeji mushrooms is good, studded with herbs and adorned generally with snipped chives. It’s nestled beside a generous dollop of mustard for self mixing, with segments of radicchio in place of croutons for scooping.

Mussels with white wine, cream and garlic ($26) are gorgeous, the sauce velvety and rich. The mussels come from Eden on the South Coast and they’re nutty and sweet. The sauce is herby and onion-heavy – just so French. With pommes frites for dipping, this dish is pitch perfect.

There’s a roasted magret duck breast ($42) – another one for the Francophile gastronomes – and the accompanying grilled radicchio with plum and jus is a contemporary, sweet and peppery addition.

The jewel in the venue’s crown might become the foliage-filled rooftop bar, yet to be completed, where way above the street lights the traffic fades. Together, the bistro and rooftop are designed for meals and more casual drinks, with DJs helping patrons make a night of it. And a morning, too, if you count the hotel underneath.

There’s something brave, admirable, even, about this move by Public Hospitality, the group behind The Strand, which calls on revellers in the surrounding streets – Crown, Riley, Stanley – to try something special, even here on this dusty thoroughfare. It’s brought  grandeur and an excellent menu to an unloved part of town, and that some makes it even more lovely.