High-profile Manly Wharf restaurants Sake and El Camino Cantina will close on Monday, June 30, as part of widespread changes by its owner, industry giant Hunter St. Hospitality.

The group’s chief executive, Frank Tucker, said the decision to shut the Manly restaurants wasn’t driven by flatter trading conditions.

“It was a commercial decision – [Manly Wharf owner Artemus Group] made a wonderful offer,” Tucker said. “We had 15 years left on the lease.”

Tucker took the helm at the hospitality group last year and oversees a massive stable that sweeps from glamour restaurants Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple and Sake in Sydney and Melbourne, to mid-market brands such as The Bavarian and Fratelli Fresh, and the Winghaus sports bar chain in NSW and Queensland. He said there had been a change of direction under his watch, with more focus on “unique venues” rather than wholesale growth of chains.

As an example, he said there were plans for three new Japanese restaurants over the next 12 months, but they were unlikely to use the popular Sake moniker. (Sake’s flagship restaurant in The Rocks will continue to trade and remains unaffected by the changes.) The Bavarian chain, which had 28 outlets at its peak, is also affected. “There are five left,” Tucker said.

It has been a slow contraction for the German-inspired brand, with some closing during the pandemic, others changing to different food concepts, some coming to the end of lease or simply closed when underperforming. The ones that are left continue to perform, Tucker said.

Tucker announced last week that one Bavarian, which had operated on York Street in Sydney’s CBD for 14 years, would be turned into a restaurant focusing on one dish: steak frites. “The area’s changed,” he said.

While there might be some expansion left for Hunter St. Hospitality brands such as El Camino and Winghaus, the focus will remain on new ventures, such as The Collective, a multi-venue precinct Hunter St. recently opened in The Rocks at the former site of The Argyle nightclub.

“People want new experiences,” Tucker said.

Another Bavarian recently shut in Manly. When its lease ran out early this year, Manly Wharf owner Artemus Group took the property in-house, earmarking it to reopen as a seafood restaurant with Luke Bourke, The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide young chef of the year for 2025, as its head chef.

Artemus successfully reimagined Howard Smith Wharves in Brisbane, and has made no secret of plans to do similar in Sydney since it splashed out $110 million last year to buy Manly Wharf.

The move was just the start of a spending spree focused on acquiring and opening new venues at the wharf. In December, Artemus added Hugos Manly to its growing portfolio at the wharf, in a deal reported to have cost it $20 million, having already purchased Manly Wharf Bar from publican Ben May.

Artemus has already brought its Felons brand from Brisbane to Manly and has plans to build a microbrewery in a former supermarket site. Now the group has added space to further expand with the Sake and El Camino sites. There’s been speculation of a possible function space, but nothing official. One of the few non-Artemus sites on the wharf is Merivale’s Queen Chow restaurant.

Tucker described Artemus as good operators, with the deal to surrender the leases at Sake and El Camino following a long negotiation.