Page 13: The real reason Cafe Brass shut its doors
PAGE 13 was fed the line Cafe Brass was ‘remodelling’, but weeks later the real reason why the Richmond restaurant closed has emerged — and the decision has left some involved baying for blood.
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DON’T throw good money after bad is a maxim Melbourne rich-lister Alex Waislitz lives by, and for good reason, with a net worth of about $1.4 billion.
Which is exactly why the Thorney Investments chairman and his rich-list cronies decided to shut up shop at Richmond’s Cafe Brass.
Last month we were fed the line the restaurant was “remodelling”, but just weeks later a notice of re-entry was issued and landlords George White And Co have repossessed the Church St property and creditors are baying for blood.
WHY RICHMOND’S CAFE BRASS SHUT ITS DOORS
GARRY LYON, NICKY BROWNLESS APPEAR AT CAFE BRASS LAUNCH
Builders and staff are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The swanky brasserie’s cashed-up investors, including Waislitz, former Domain boss Antony Catalano, KPMG mover and shaker Jon Adgemis (pictured) and diamond dealer Marcus Rose, have become its major creditors.
More than one investor in this cash collapse told Page 13 they will wear the pain.
This is despite one of Waislitz’s confidantes telling us that more than $1.5 million was ploughed into the restaurant and bar.
Even the rich make mistakes, but they are sucking it up.
“All the guys that loaned money are big boys. They’ve all had wins and they’ve all had losses. The investment by each of them was minor,” Page 13 was told by someone who knows, from somewhere in Europe.
BUT the missing zeros are not so minor for the lesser creditors whose pockets are not so deep.
They want their cash back. Richmond’s Bespoke builders have issued several legal letters since April, demanding payment of $113,242.29. It’s a sharp pain in the hip pocket.
“I’m just a small family business, not some big multinational,” Bespoke’s owner told Page 13.
“It hurts, it hurts a lot. I never got paid and I think I’m never going to get paid. I just trusted them to pay us but no one has returned my calls, I’ve never had something like this happen and to be honest, it’s really unpleasant.”
Page 13 has been told a team of subcontractors worked around the clock to get the once empty shell fitted out in time for Cafe Brass to open last Christmas.
“They just kept wanting more. We did so much extra stuff, they wanted more lighting, better sound, you name it, we kept giving it to them. I was taking my guys off other jobs, I was working off trust,” the builder said.
Three months later he was told “the business wasn’t doing as well as they thought.”
No cheque appeared and the builder’s legal letters have been ignored.
THE “terrible, horrible, mess” rising from the Richmond restaurant’s collapse has also closed the door on a friendship between Toorak’s “odd couple” — Waislitz and Cafe Brass frontman Sam Frantzeskos.
After splitting with wife Heloise Pratt in 2015, it’s no secret Waislitz is in the market (we hear one leggy prospect is the sister of a very refreshed Real Housewives of Melbourne star).
Enter ol’ mate Frantzeskos of former Greville St institution FOG, Metro nightclub and King St Inflation fame.
With Frantzeskos divorcing from his wife and wearing the pain of some failed business ventures, the two became roomies at Waislitz’s Toorak bachelor pad.
“Waislitz had the dough and Sam had the know-how and the contact book,” buzzed one fly on the wall. “It was a match made in Toorak bachelor heaven.”
Who can forget Waislitz’s “hedonistic playground” themed 60th birthday bash earlier this year.
Masked burlesque dancers cavorted with hissing snakes as Waislitz led the revellers in a ringmaster’s red coat and top hat.
Waislitz whipped around his mates to help Sam open a new venture, each tipping in around $250,000, and then some, and then some.
“Alex tried to help Sam get back on his feet and a few of us put in a bit of money to help him out, but it didn’t work,” another investor said from somewhere in the Americas. Page 13 is not sure exactly where and he was probably on his way somewhere else. Money travels fast.
Has it hurt the Waislitz bottom line, we asked?
“Alex would spill what he tipped in to help his mate,” we were told.
ONCE a hospitality high-flyer with Melbourne’s best black book, Cafe Brass’s Frantzeskos and his son Stephen who also ran front of house are feeling the pain.
Sam told Page 13 his hands were tied after the investors told him to close down the business at the end of June.
“I lost my job and 18 other staff were terminated,” he said,
“Staff and creditors have been calling me and I have been unable to give them any satisfactory explanation as to what is happening.
“I hope they receive their staff entitlements and creditors get paid.”
The days of long, long lunches and ringing up a friend to party are not what they used to be.
While there was plenty of action happening in the Cafe Brass courtyard where the flavour of the month would sit (we were somewhat alarmed to hear of a hyped-up and boozed-up, er “girth-off” one night with some former footy stars).
But it all came down to bums on seats and the numbers were not stacking up.
“Great food, nice venue, but it just didn’t get the numbers through the door,” we were told about Melbourne’s ritziest restaurant crash.
What happened after the glamorous opening in March which saw Garry Lyon first step out publicly with girlfriend Nicky Brownless?
“Sam lost money from the day he opened and in the end the money ran out. He had no choice but to close the door. He didn’t get the numbers through and that meant he earned more than he spent. It’s pretty simple mathematics.”
“It was a business gone bad, It went broke, as simple as that,” said another in the know.
Even marketer Catchy Media, who organised the star-studded guest list is believed to be still awaiting his full pay cheque.
WHAT happens now is still simmering away.
With the loaded-up rich listers scattered across the globe it’s hard to get a straight answer.
A spokesman for Waislitz told Page 13 from New York what we already knew.
It’s a “messy situation” but we are in the process of appointing a liquidator.
Meanwhile Frantzeskos has moved out of the Toorak bachelor pad.
Seems the air has gone out of that mattress.
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