Chin Chin boss Chris Lucas pays $3.4m for Sydney bolthole in Potts Point
THE king of Melbourne casual dining Chris Lucas has bought a Sydney bolthole ahead of the much-anticipated opening of his Chin Chin restaurant in Surry Hills.
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THE king of Melbourne casual dining Chris Lucas has bought a Sydney bolthole ahead of the much-anticipated opening of his Chin Chin restaurant in Surry Hills.
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Mr Lucas, head of The Lucas Group, has paid $3.4 million for a two-bedroom Potts Point apartment.
The apartment commands gun-barrel views over Sydney Harbour. The block was built in 2015 by SJB Architects.
The Geelong-born restaurateur is spending time in Sydney ahead of the opening of his first restaurant outside Melbourne.
Chin Chin opened in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane in 2011 and the Thai eatery is known as the most successful restaurant the city has seen, with customers prepared to queue for two hours or more for a table — there are no bookings.
Sydney Chin Chin will be located on the ground floor of the Griffiths Teas Building on Wentworth Ave.
Mr Lucas is viewed as something of a serial restaurateur, being joined in his next Melbourne project with Sydney restaurateurs Martin Benn and Vicki Wild.
They closed their acclaimed fine diner, Sepia, to make the move to Melbourne to join Lucas in the new venture.
The Lucas Group is set to employ 1000 staff, including 200 chefs, by year’s end in its string of restaurants — including Hawker Hall, Kong, Baby and Kisume.
Mr Lucas’s two-bathroom Potts Point apartment last traded off the plan in 2013 when Oceanlinx chief financial officer Colin Parbery paid $2.45 million.
Michael and Judy McMahon, the longtime owners of Rose Bay’s famous restaurant Catalina’s, were previous owners in the complex.
The couple sold their Potts Point apartment late last year for $3.3 million.