All staff sacked as popular Sydney Italian restaurant group collapses

A beloved pasta restaurant, which traded for 15 years, has collapsed into liquidation along with five sister companies, sacking all staff in the process.

EXCLUSIVE

Beloved Sydney pasta restaurant, A tavola, which traded for 15 years, has collapsed into liquidation along with five sister companies, sacking all staff and owing creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The other affected businesses are Flour Eggs Water Surry Hills and meatball restaurant Palle, which both traded out of Sydney’s Tramsheds development, along with home delivery business, A tavola at Home.

The liquidation also includes A tavola Bondi, which closed earlier this year.

Well-known Adelaide-Sydney chef Eugenio Maiale and his wife Michelle were behind the businesses.

Know more? | [e-mail]

A tavola's original location in Darlinghurst was shuttered when news.com.au visited.

Flour Eggs Water’s Google business listing showing it has also closed.

Liquidator Shumit Banerjee, of Westburn Advisory, who was appointed to the four parent companies of the businesses on December 20, told news.com.au: “All employment contracts were regrettably terminated as of yesterday and the precise number of staff and entitlements owed will be known later today.”

Mr Banerjee said while he was still investigating the financial situation, it appeared the businesses creditors included “suppliers, landlords and the Australian Taxation Office and the amount owing was still being quantified”.

It is understood the figure is likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mr Banerjee said the reason for the failure of the businesses appeared to be a combination of factors, including impacts from Covid-19, a decrease in revenue potentially linked to the increase in the cost of living and the businesses being “unable to secure terms with landlords and suppliers to enable them to continue to trade profitably”.

Well-known Adelaide-Sydney chef Eugenio Maiale is behind the businesses. Picture: Christian Gilles

According to its website, A tavola first opened in 2007 on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst.

A tavola – which translates from Italian to ‘at the table’ was known for its long marble central table, where groups of diners were seated together, long before communal dining became fashionable.

In 2013 the company expanded to Bondi, opening a second A tavola, which closed earlier this year after a 10-year run.

A tavola's Bondi outpost shut earlier this year.

Mr Maiale also operated Flour Eggs Water at Sydney’s Tramsheds which opened in 2016.

A tavola at Home was launched during Covid-19 when his other sites were forced to shut down, a pivot made by many restaurateurs.

The newest restaurant, Palle meatballs, also at Tramsheds opened in 2022.

A tavola, which was still trading from its original Darlinghurst site, was shuttered on Wednesday night, when visited by news.com.au.

The restaurants are yet to announce their closures on social media, but last posted three weeks ago.

Palle meatballs has gone into liquidation.

Booking links for the restaurants have been disabled.

The demise of the group follows the recent decision by all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant Okami to put its eight venues into voluntary administration, blaming inflation and pandemic related costs.

A recent report from CreditorWatch found that businesses in the food and beverage services sector have the highest probability of business failure over the next 12 months.

Know more? | [e-mail]

Originally published as All staff sacked as popular Sydney Italian restaurant group collapses