The Sell: Landmark Potts Point restaurant La Strada sold
The site of Potts Point restaurant La Strada — whose clientele included Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue, Mick Jagger, and Shirley Bassey — has sold.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Hospitality industry entrepreneur Peter Metzner has bought the former La Strada premises in Potts Point.
The landmark restaurant space was sold by Giovanna Toppi, matriarch of the acclaimed restaurateur family.
Toppi’s 322sq m Macleay St corner property last sold in 1979 for $348,000, with the elegant restaurant opening soon after with her late husband Walter.
Until its 1996 closure, the restaurant was the place to dine for all visiting international stars. The celebrity diner photos, including Mick Jagger, Elton John, Sylvester Stallone, Sammy Davis, Rod and Rachel Stewart and Shirley Bassey, were hung in its discreet Hughes St entrance.
It also hosted a new generation of diners, including Michael Hutchence and Kylie Minogue.
Black-vested waiters Ricky Spinelli and Franco Perez served countless steak Dianes and crepe suzettes to regulars, including Kerry Packer and other colourful Sydney characters.
La Strada took its name from the 1954 Federico Fellini film released around the time Toppi arrived in Sydney from Naples.
She came by herself, with little money and no English, starting as a dishwasher and working her way up to head chef at Buona Sera.
She went on to own and run O Sole Mio, Giovannas, La Strada and, of course, from 1988, Machiavelli with daughters Paola and Caterina.
Estate agent Alison Coopes marketed 95 Macleay St as “an opportunity never to be repeated” pitching to “astute investors wanting to value add”.
Peter Metzner, the owner of events and fashion PR company The Arc Factory, and who was a youthful two-time Cleo Bachelor of the Year contender, has a passion for undertaking inner-city transformations of sites into boutique apartments above commercial space.
He and wife Rose intend to take an apartment.
The marketing gave a six-storey infill concept plan with double-storey eaterie.
Its present annual income sits at $293,145, with Coopes advising it would need “minimal cost to improve”.
LUSH AVALON BEACH OFFERING
Interior stylist Sarah Parry-Okeden, the wife of media company scion Henry Parry-Okeden, has decided to sell one of her luxury Avalon Beach investment properties.
It has been a luxury rental offering since its lush makeover.
Belle agent Laura Mears suggests the Bellevue Ave home delivers a “masterclass in contemporary coastal style”.
Designed by Sarah Parry-Okeden’s Wild Orchid Spaces, the bespoke property has richly textured interiors. It includes a chef’s kitchen, a 20-seater Silestone dining table, wood fireplace, separate cabana and heated mineral pool.
The property, in the heart of the village, was bought in late-2019 for $3.1 million.
The couple have owned on Sydney’s northern beaches since they paid $2,836,000 in 2013 for a vast 7200sq m estate with tennis court and pool.
They own two other nearby properties. Henry Parry-Okeden is an heir to the Atlanta-headquartered global media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, being the great-grandson of the founder, James M. Cox.
He has been on the board of the family-held media and automotive company since 2016.
His mother is the billionaire Scone pastoralist Blair Parry-Okeden, who moved to Australia from the US in the 1970s to live with her then-husband, Simon.
Wild Orchid’s portfolio includes property in Colorado and Aspen, and the French country-style homestead Cordeaux on 26ha at Berrima in the NSW Southern Highlands.
It was in 2010 when Henry co-founded InvitedHome, a Boulder, Colorado-based luxury holiday rental company.
Both Sarah and Henry turn 40 this year.
TAUPAU LISTS BOTANY HOME
Manly Sea Eagle Martin Taupau has listed his three-bedroom, two-bathroom Botany home.
Taupau bought it in 2018 with his then-fiancee, Michelle Baillie, for $1,435,000 ahead of their marriage in 2019.
Their Botany home, which spans three levels on its 265sq m parcel, has been scheduled for April 24 auction through Cassandra Romano at Olsen Romano Estate Agents.
Taupau, a New Zealand international, has been in the news after The Daily Telegraph reported his bid to test himself on the open market had backfired, with clubs baulking at his $800,000-a-year asking price.
Contracted to the Sea Eagles until the end of 2022, Taupau has been selling himself to rival clubs through new agent Matthew Desira after being told the Sea Eagles would consider granting him a release at the end of the season.
POINT PIPER SALE
There are unconfirmed whispers the Point Piper home of Scott Barlow and wife, Alina, has been sold.
Barlow, the son-in-law of Sydney FC’s billionaire owner David Traktovenko, has reputedly accepted around $40 million, similar to an offer made last year.
The hillside property, with a right of way to the water, adjoins two other Wolseley Rd properties that have been sold recently.
Settlements might show that two of them sold to the same buyer, but agents Bill Malouf, Brad Pillinger and William Manning won’t reveal any of their respective deals.
The sequence began with the $33 million sale by the Seven Network commercial director Bruce McWilliam’s investment offering.
‘Out of control’: Teen allegedly attacked with axe, kidnapped
A Northern Rivers woman stands accused of kidnapping a teenage girl and robbing her before she escaped from a car in an alleged wild episode on a busy roadway.
Mayor’s political rival to join ranks of southwest Sydney council
A controversial former councillor who distributed a fake Islamophobic flyer about his rival’s wife and MP will return to a southwest Sydney council after scoring a win at the ballot box.