Neil Perry to close last Sydney restaurant, 11 Bridge
Sydney without a high end Neil Perry restaurant? The idea is almost unthinkable, but the end of an era indeed looms large.
Sydney without a high end Neil Perry restaurant? The idea is almost unthinkable, but the end of an era indeed looms large for Australia’s most recognisable chef and restaurant entrepreneur.
Perry’s last supper at 11 Bridge, the luxe CBD restaurant that morphed out of his 27-year-old Rockpool fine diner, will be in mid May.
It will close and subsequently reopen as a high-end Chinese.
Last year, Perry and his then business partners sold the majority of their restaurant brands to the private equity-backed Urban Purveyor Group in a deal rumoured to have been worth more than $60 million.
The Perry restaurants and became stablemates with the likes of Sake, Fratelli Fresh and Munich Brauhaus.
Perry and remaining business partner Trish Richards have now sold the jewel in their shared crown into the same company, which has subsequently been rebranded Rockpool Dining Group.
Perry last night conceded the deal “made more sense.”
“Bridge is more a labour of love than anything else,” he said. “It really isn’t making the dollars. I’ve got very mixed emotions about the deal … I’ll be really sorry to see it go.”
No doubt the monthly rent cheque at the glorious former Burns Philp building is something the chef won’t miss; sold for $8.51 million in October 2015, industry sources say the annual rent plus outgoings would be on the wrong side of $650,000.
Rockpool opened in Sydney’s Rocks in 1989 ushering in a new wave of relaxed, Asian-inspired Australian cooking from the then young chef Perry. The restaurant moved to George Street in 2015 under the new moniker Rockpool 1989, subsequently relaunching last year as 11 Bridge.
Head chef of eight years Phil Wood plans to move on.
“The world is Phil’s Oyster,” said Perry “he is a fantastic cook.”
Wood says his plans are unresolved beyond “a break and a think. I’m sure the right thing will present itself.
“We’ve won every award a chef and a restaurant could hope for. I reckon we are going out on a high.”