Sydney restaurants where deals are made and peace is brokered
There really is no such thing as a free lunch. Annette Sharp reveals the 12 Sydney restaurants that have played a key role in some of the high stakes business deals and peace talks. SEARCH OUR DELICIOUS. MONTH OUT MAP FOR MORE THAN 250 DEALS
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For millennia, warring factions have resolved conflict by breaking bread together.
Ancient military generals did it, early Christians did it, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did it, modern bureaucrats and business executives do it every day.
Simply put, a good meal is good business strategy.
It’s the same in Sydney today, where business mergers and takeovers seem to be taking place on the hour, where politicians and media powerbrokers are locked in hostile reputation-battering exchanges, and old kings and queens are clutching at the threads of legacy.
With so much at stake, the last thing one needs with one’s peace talks is a bad oyster or a warm Bellini.
As part of the American Express delicious. Month Out event which gives Sydneysiders access to more than 250 deals at restaurants, bars and cafes across the city – here 12 of Sydney’s best proven restaurants for wheeling, dealing and keeping up high stakes appearances.
OTTO, Woolloomooloo Pier
The Powerbroker: John Laws and socialite wife Caroline, until her death last week
Date: 2000 to 2020
The Occasion: For the best part of 20 years, for almost as long as Otto Risorante has been a fixture on Sydney’s famed Woolloomooloo Pier, there was a table reserved at the Italian eatery for radio legend Laws and his wife who, in the early days, visited what was then chef Maurice Terzini’s waterside celebrity hotspot “six or seven nights” a week. “It’s his table,” Terzini said in 2001. “Mr Laws is a very good customer, one who keeps us on edge, and we don’t mind at all – this sort of thing is very common overseas.” Laws and his wife, his “Princess”, treated the venue, which is located just a hop, skip and, on some days, a slight stagger down the pier from the Laws’s private waterfront apartments, as their private dining room. The pair, both in dark sunglasses to ward off the setting sun, were regulars until Mrs Laws was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, at which time she reduced her public appearances. The Fink Group, present custodians of the venue, will be weighing up how best to pay tribute to the elegant Mrs Laws, who died last month, and her husband, whose return is eagerly anticipated.
Clientele: KD Lang, Rufus Wainwright, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, Telstra chief Andy Penn, Russell Crowe, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, Zac Efron, Shanina Shaik and Tyson Beckford, Francesca Packer, Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce, Georgie Gardner, Leonardo di Caprio, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin and children Lillian and William.
LA ROSA, The Strand Arcade, CBD
The Powerbroker: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her attache
Date: February 2020
The Crisis: The New Zealand Prime Minister flew to Australia on January 27 to meet with Australian PM Scott Morrison for their annual trans-Tasman catch-up that this year focused on this country’s deportation policies. During her highly publicised visit, Ardern, showing the natural and accessible leadership style that has marked her term in office, slipped undetected into the Strand Arcade to carb-load on chef and owner Nino Zoccali’s delicious handmade bread, pasta and pizza. Ardern was joined for the Roman meal (aperitivos Madam Prime Minister?) by two tables of associates and minders. La Rosa is generally not associated with politicians as it is frequented by a hip well-heeled rock star set, making Ardern’s visit a week ago all the more noteworthy.
Clientele: Kate Moss and Jamie Hince of The Kills, Mark Webber, John Cleese, Nic Cester and his band JET, Spiderbait’s Kram, Powderfinger’s Darren Middleton, You Am I’s David Lane, finance author (Donald Trump’s publishing chum) Robert Kiyosaki and Colin Fassnidge.
AZUMA JAPANESE RESTAURANT, Chifley Square, CBD
The Powerbrokers: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and former Premier Mike Baird
Date: October 2018
The Crisis: After powerful 2GB breakfast broadcaster Alan Jones blasted Opera House Chief Executive Louise Herron for refusing Racing NSW’s bid to promote horse race The Everest on the property’s heritage-listed sails, an under-fire Berejiklian – whose job Jones also threatened over the ad – met with her predecessor Baird, then a National Australia Bank executive, at top tier sushi joint Azuma to consult with Baird about dealing with the crusading broadcaster and the issue on which the government had the right to overrule Herron and the Opera House Trust. Jones had famously taken Baird to task over his decision to shut down the greyhound racing industry when he was Premier. Berejiklian ultimately approved the Racing NSW ads – giving Jones a small victory although in PR terms he had already lost the war over his treatment of Herron. For approving a tweaked version of the ad, Berejiklian won Jones’s support.
The Clientele: Other fans of owner/chef Kimitaka Azuma’s fare include ANZ and Coca-Cola Amatil chairman David Gonski, Powerhouse Museum boss Darren Steinberg, shopping centre company chairman Brian Schwartz, Goldman Sachs investment banker Joe Fayaad, bankers Guy Fowler, Dane Fitzgibbon, Simon Mordant, Carolyn Kay, Stockland director Carol Schwartz and ASIC chairman Tony D’Aloisio.
CHISWICK, Woollahra
The Powerbrokers: Society matrons Ros Packer, Gretel Packer, Jeanne Pratt, Lady (Susan) Atwill, ex NSW Governor Marie Bashir and Lisa Wilkinson
Date: October 2018
The Occasion: Ros Packer’s 80th birthday. Following corrective back surgery and a tough year during which her billionaire casino magnate son James was admitted to a Boston clinic to address health issues, the Packer family matriarch was toasted by close friends and daughter Gretel over lunch at restaurateur Matt Moran’s chic and well-situated Woollahra restaurant, Chiswick. Other guests included Ros’ six grandchildren, three of whom now live in Los Angeles and their glamorous mother Erica. Chiswick is something of a favoured haunt of the Packers – Gretel celebrated her 50th there in 2016 – as it is with women in general. Power couples tend to pack in on weekends.
The Clientele: Richard Roxburgh and Silvia Colloca, Ita Buttrose, Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull, Jim Spiegelman, Tom and Hoda Waterhouse, Kirk Pengilly and Layne Beachley, Leigh Sales, Sarah Harris, Mia Freedman, Mark Ferguson, Mark Scott, Firmdale Hotels’ UK proprietor Kit Kemp, Deborah Hutton, over-the-fence neighbour Kerri-Anne Kennerley.
PENDOLINO, The Strand Arcade
The Powerbrokers: Ex Commonweath Bank CEO Ralph Norris and Aussie Home Loans’ founder John Symond
Date: 2008 to 2017
The Proposition: After establishing Australia’s biggest mortgage brokerage company, Aussie, in 1992, “Aussie John” Symond was persuaded in 2008 to part with an initial 33 per cent of the company when Australia’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth, came calling in the aftermath of the global credit crisis. The courtship of Symond – who sold his final stake in Aussie to CBA in 2017 – by Ralph Norris, then boss of CBA, took place over many months at one of Sydney’s most discreet restaurants, the atmospheric, dimly lit and thoroughly romantic Pendolino on the second level of historic retail strip The Strand, the best restaurant in the CBD we can think to have an affair. At Pendolino, Nino Zoccali, who began his career as chef at celebrity hotspot Otto on the Woolloomooloo Pier, has created an antidote to the Fink Group’s open-fronted Otto, still the favoured haunt of Sydney’s paparazzi. Access to Pendolino is via one or two antique elevators (stairs also) situated in the historic shopping arcade thus providing patrons with an abundance of excuses for being in the vicinity, not just Zoccali’s extraordinary regional Italian fare and great wine list.
The Clientele: Ex Premiers Mike Baird and Bob Carr, Gail Kelly, Telstra’s Andy Penn, Anna Bligh, Rebecca Valance, ex-David Jones executives including Mark McInnes, Colette Garnsey, Donna Player and Paul Zahra, Giants President Tony Shepherd, Natalie Barr, fashion duo Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest, ex airline boss John Borghetti with Etihad boss James Hogan.
ICEBERGS DINING ROOM AND BAR, Bondi Beach
The Powerbrokers: Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of News Corp (publisher of this newspaper) and wife Sarah
Date: March, 2019
The Occasion: The power couple flew home to Australia to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary with friends and kicked off a weekend of celebrations with a Friday night party at the glamorous restaurant perched on the beach at Bondi overlooking one of the best ocean pools and most famous beaches in the country. Guests included former prime minister, Tony Abbott, media scion Ryan Stokes and wife Claire, rich list regular Fortescue Mining’s Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, an elite list of socialites including Erica Packer, home from LA with her then new fiancée, artist Enrique Martinez Celaya, top fashion designers Collette Dinnigan and Alex Perry.
The Clientele: International celebrities love to visit Icebergs, among them Prince Charles and Camilla, Princess Mary of Denmark, Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Nicole Kidman, Nigella Lawson who described Maurice Terzini’s restaurant as her favourite in “the whole world”, Edwina McCann, Celeste Barber, Jessica Mauboy, Elle Macpherson and ex Gilles Bensimon, Jackie “O” Henderson, Robert Redford, Kim Kardashian.
MR WONG, Establishment Hotel, CBD
The Powerbroker: Alan Jones and his 2GB production team
Date: May 2019
The Crisis: Out of favour with his Macquarie Media radio bosses after the company lost a $3.7 million defamation case relating to Queensland’s Lockyer Valley floods in September 2018, 2GB’s star breakfast presenter Alan Jones was facing an uncertain future as it emerged his radio bosses had started talking to his stablemate Ray Hadley about replacing Jones at the end of his contract in June 30, 2019. In May, Jones is handed a breach of contract notice, his third, from radio management after switching listener calls critical of 2GB management to air. Jones is eventually offered a new contract but as the fight for his job intensifies – and the media fixes upon him – he takes a breather from the warfare to take his steadfast production team out to lunch. Accustomed to having his meals prepared for him by his butler when at home, Jones chooses the Merivale Group’s bustling atmospherically charged Cantonese laneway kitchen, Mr Wong, as his sanctuary from the storm.
The Clientele: David and Victoria Beckham and children Harper, Cruz and Romeo Beckham, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Adele and Simon Konecki, Marilyn Manson, Drake, Samuel L Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, Drew Barrymore, Kelly Rowland, Will Smith, Billy Crystal, Vince Vaughn, Liverpool FC star Steven Gerrard, Shanina Shaik, Kevin Rudd and John and James Symond.
SADDLES, Mt White
The Powerbroker: Investor and former radio boss John Singleton, budding arts patron, and American country music legend Kris Kristofferson
Date: October 2019
The Occasion: After a difficult year, during which he saw his hoped for Macquarie Media sale hopes swindle from $100 million to around $80 mill, larrikin adman turned businessman and restaurateur Singleton moved into new territory when he pulled out his cheque book and enticed American country music legend Kris Kristofferson to perform at his new Central Coast restaurant, Saddles. Earlier in the year Saddles picked up a coveted award in Condé Nast Traveler magazine Most Beautiful Restaurants In The World gongs, so he had a couple of thing to celebrate. “Singo”, who spends most of his time at his Mt White stud these days, was in need of a posh canteen at which to entertain business associates travelling to him. As a sort of unofficial opening, he splashed some money around in October and invited his best mates to his rustic themed but comfortably decked out eatery.
The Clientele: Harvey Norman/Domayne owners Gerry Harvey and Katie Page, Hungry Jacks’ billionaire Jack Cowin, veteran league star Tom Raudonikis, Olympian Dawn Fraser, broadcaster Ray Hadley and media executives treated to a raspy set of 83-year-old Kristofferson’s hits including Me and Bobby McGee over a Monday lunch.
ROCKPOOL BAR & GRILL, Sydney and Melbourne
The Powerbrokers/Sydney : New Seven CEO James Warburton and AFL boss Gillon McLachlan
Date: November and October 2019
The Crises: In Sydney, an on the ropes Warburton has spent his first following his appointment in August shoring up assets as Seven’s revenue and ratings dive. The greatest assets in Seven’s programming arsenal at the end of 2019 were the 2020 Olympic Games and the AFL which Seven has the rights to until 2022. McLachlan has been eager to get an assurance from Warburton that he will roll over the AFL rights – a $2.5 billion six-year deal – at the end of the current contract but parent company Seven West Media, which announced a $67 million bottom line loss for the December half, doesn’t appear flush with cash. The pair met to talk contracts in November, 2019, and McLachlan’s hope of extending his current one for two years.
T he Powerbrokers/Melbourne: Ex chairman of the embattled Crown Resorts board John Alexander and his board which includes former Tennis Australia boss Harold Mitchell, former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou, Mike Johnstone, John Poynton, Geoff Dixon, Guy Jalland and soon-to-be new chair, Helen Coonan sit down to a working dinner.
The Crisis – In Melbourne on the eve of Crown’s AGM last October, Alexander and his Crown Board prepare for the grilling from angry shareholders following media coverage exposing Crown’s alleged links to organised crime, money laundering and brothels – all of which follows major shareholder James Packer’s public retreat from the business and the collapse of Crown’s alliance to Hong Kong billionaire Lawrence Ho.
The Clientele: Former Prime Ministers John Howard, Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, former ABC boss Michelle Guthrie, Westpac CEO Gail Kelly, NAB and ASX director Jillian Segal, Westfield’s Frank Lowy, billionaire James Packer, developers Lang Walker, John Boyd, Roy Medich, NSW Liberal lobbyist Michael Photios, Woolworths chairman Gordon Cairns, Eddie McGuire’s manager Jeff Browne, Sky boss Paul Whittaker.
CATALINA, Rose Bay
The Powerbrokers: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and members of his Liberal Party cabinet
Date: August 2018
The Crisis : Strapped for cash in the lead up to the 2019 election, PM Turnbull and his party were poised to hold a $12,500-a-head meet and greet at the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney with a dinner to follow at the then PM’s local, Catalina, a swank Sydney restaurant Turnbull once co-owned, overlooking Sydney Harbour. Organised by the Libs’ Australian Business Network fundraising arm, the Federal Business Policy Exchange fundraiser was well underway when the leadership spill saw Turnbull ejected from office, to be replaced by Scott Morrison, prompting the eleventh hour cancellation of the dinner that would have raised more than a $1 million for the party.
The Clientele : Located in Sydney’s affluent east, Catalina’s clientele is as diverse as well-heeled Sydney. It’s also loved by “old Sydney” celebrities. Sam Smith, Chris Hemsworth, Katy Perry, Kelly Rowland, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, Nicole Kidman, Graham and Amanda Richardson, Zac Efron, Bono, Charlize Theron, Al Pacino, Ian Macdonald, Terry Biviano and Anthony Minichiello, Fadi Ibrahim, Rodney and Lindy Adler and Kristy Hinze.
ARIA, Circular Quay
The Powerbroker: Outgoing Mirvac chairman James MacKenzie and the property development group’s new CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz and Mirvac executives
Date: February 2014
The Occasion: Two months after MacKenzie, a one-time director of Melco Crown Entertainment and chairman of Pacific Brands, was stood down as chairman of Mirvac following a shareholder revolt, the new CEO Lloyd-Hurwitz organises a low key farewell dinner for him. A year earlier, MacKenzie had survived a vote to remove him from his post after he tapped then Mirvac MD Nick Collishaw and informed him the board was standing him down from the helm of the development company and replacing him with a woman. The shock would reverberate throughout the industry but Lloyd-Hurwitz has presided over years of growth at Mirvac, now the second biggest office landlord in Australia, after overhauling Mirvac’s strategic approach, increasing staff engagement and reshaping the business as a “sustainable” real estate company.
The Clientele: For an appropriate world class fine dining send-off for the embattled MacKenzie, Lloyd-Hurwitz booked the private dining room at Matt Moran’s fine-dining establishment, Aria, with it’s splendid views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge admired by the likes of Blake Lively, Princess Haya of Jordan, Princess Mary of Denmark, Leonardo di Caprio, Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham, Vince Vaughn, Gerard Butler, Jason Alexander, ex PM Bill Shorten and ex Premier Bob Carr.
BENNELONG, Bennelong Point, Opera House
The Powerbroker: PM Malcolm Turnbull and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Date: February 2017
The Occasion: The Israeli PM’s 2017 visit to Sydney was the first time an Israeli PM has graced this country with their presence. An excited Malcolm Turnbull was keen to celebrate “shared values, democracy, freedom, rule of law” with Netanyahu and his touring companion, wife Sara, while also publicly condemning a recent UN resolution that accused Israel of breaching international law. One of the first orders of business though was private lunch at the Opera House for four – just the Netanyahus and the Turnbulls. Senate Committee budget estimates don’t record what was eaten, but the meal set the tax payer back $538.86 – rather a conservative sum given the extraordinary dishes on chef Peter Gilmore’s menu. If a bottle of wine was consumed, it was plainly a modest one.
The Clientele: The biggest star at Bennelong is chef Peter Gilmore who took over in 2015 and transformed the restaurant. Patrons however have included former PMs Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Russell Crowe, Curtis Stone, Mel Gibson, Florence Welch, Julie Andrews and the many international stars who have performed at the Opera House including violinist Pinky Zuckerman who came for lunch and was humbled when the entire restaurant rose to applaud him.
A special pop up event will be held in Sydney’s Surry Hills on Thursday March 12 at the corner of Collins and Crown St from 4pm-7pm.