Inside Song Bird: Neil Perry’s newest Double Bay restaurant
Meet the team charged with matching sublime fittings and furnishings to the chef’s superlative flavours.
Neil Perry once said he’d never open a restaurant that was more than one level.
Then again – according to 2020 headlines when Perry famously walked away from his role as culinary director for the private equity-backed Urban Purveyor Group that bought out his dining empire back in 2016 – he was also meant to retire.
“I didn’t retire so much as I left that business and kind of went into neutral for a little while,” Perry tells WISH of that time. “I’d spent a number of years working with the team there. Between the American leadership and what I was doing, we just had a different view of restaurants.”
For Perry, “neutral” never actually meant idling – it was more a regrouping of resources. Now the 67-year-old is doubling down on his presence in Sydney’s Double Bay and a whole new empire, where this time he’s in complete control.
“I guess it was really covid that made me feel that suburbs such as Double Bay could be revived,” the chef says.
That gut feeling was on the money. At the beginning there was Margaret, Perry’s first solo venture in the harbourside neighbourhood. The restaurant opened during the thick of the pandemic, and quickly won over Double Bay. Next door is the aptly named wine bar, Next Door. And his joint venture with Mia and Mike Russell’s Melbourne-born sourdough purveyor Baker Bleu – co-owner Mike Russell’s love of bread was sparked during his time working in the pastry section of Perry’s Rockpool Bar & Grill – attracts carbohydrate fans from across Sydney.
The three venues, occupying a real-estate sweet spot on the corner of Bay Street and Guilfoyle Avenue, have been described as both a herald of Double Bay’s rebirth as a world-class hospitality destination, and the first steps in what others call the “Perry-fication” of the suburb.
“I’d spent the majority of my cooking career in the city, in the CBD, with my restaurants,” Perry recalls. “I’d done Bondi in ’86 and ’87 with Blue Water Grill. Pretty much the rest of it was in the city – Rockpool, Spice Temple. But it didn’t take long to see this site, Margaret, and know that it was just a very unique space.”
Now the doors have opened on what might be Perry’s most ambitious project for the area yet: the transformation of the heritage-listed Gaden House office building, at 24 Bay Street, into a three-level modern Chinese eatery, Song Bird, and below that, the subterranean cocktail bar Bobbie’s. The latter venue is a collaboration with fellow hospo rock star Linden Pride and his wife Nathalie Hudson, of cult bars Dante in New York and also at The Maybourne hotel in Beverly Hills.
Perry credits the idea for opening another restaurant to his landlord, Fortis, which manages both the Margaret property and Gaden House. “One of them said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to put a restaurant over there’,” he recalls. “So, I went over to take a look with them and went, ‘Wow, it’d be absolutely fantastic. But the only kind of restaurant I’d want to do is Chinese’.” Mainly Cantonese, Perry explains, with a menu designed to highlight the quality of locally sourced ingredients. “If you make prawn toast or a har gow out of Spencer Gulf prawns, the difference is like chalk and cheese,” he says.
“Most restaurants would use a frozen Chilean or Thai peeled product. Good restaurants would use an Australian frozen peeled product, which would be like an Austral or the banana prawns, which are pretty good.
“But if you take on board deep-frozen Spencer Gulf king prawn and you bring it here and peel it – I’m biased, but I think the Spencer Gulf prawn is without peer in Australia for flavour profile – they’re amazing.
“It’s an expensive way to do it, because it would be much easier to buy 40 kilos of peeled prawns a day than it is to peel 40 kilos of prawns, but the difference is extraordinary in flavour and texture.”
What began as a single-level concept quickly escalated into something much grander, courtesy of a stunning spiral staircase that is at the heart of Gaden House.
“Every time we walked up to level two, I said to the guys, ‘You’re going to cap this staircase off so that no one will be able to go down? It just seems wrong to me’,” Perry recalls. His instincts told him the staircase was the key to unlocking the building’s full potential.
In discussions with Fortis, Perry was able to secure the entire four-level building. “I ended up with four floors without realising it,” Perry admits, laughing at the unexpected turn of events.
The expansion was bold, even by Neil Perry standards, and came with its share of challenges – especially as construction costs soared between 2021 and 2024. But Perry never wavered in his belief. “It’s incredible, and we’re going to love having it. It’s a really beautiful bookend to what Margaret does in this precinct,” he says.
To bring the property’s potential to life, Perry brought in industrial designer David Caon and architectural and interior design team Vince Alafaci and Caroline Choker of ACME, reuniting the project team with which he’d previously worked to create Margaret.
Transforming an existing office building into a sophisticated restaurant over multiple levels posed some unique hurdles. And that’s before you take into account the red tape that working with a heritage-listed structure attracts.
“If he talks to us about another restaurant, we’re putting handcuffs on him,” jokes Caon.
“The only reason that I’ve done this extension is because it was right here in Double Bay. Because it’s the best site... And because I’m not leaving Double Bay.”
Gaden House, designed by renowned architect Neville Gruzman, has been praised for its clean lines, functional design and an illuminated ceiling that became a hallmark of midcentury modernism. Keeping, or honouring, these details was a key part of the brief for the ACME team and Caon. As Alafaci notes, “The staircase is certainly an amazing element, one that you would struggle to build in 2024.”
The team also took special care to preserve the ceiling. “Gruzman’s incredible lit ceiling detail was something that we immediately decided had to be retained,” explains Alafaci. “We knew that seeing that illuminated properly would be enchanting, both from within the space and from street level. In fact, we preserved as many of the original light wells as we could, and recreated the remainder.
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“There were other little details, like the sconce lights in the original foyer that we have sought to pay homage to, by making contemporary bespoke versions.”
The team also had to navigate the complexities of modern hospitality requirements while respecting the building’s original design. Aesthetic choices that would create a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere for diners had to seamlessly integrate operational infrastructure such as dumbwaiters and goods lifts, which Choker says became “the central nervous system of the project”.
The materials chosen for the interior were carefully selected to create a space that is contemporary, but also reflective of the building’s history, Caon says.
“We wanted to create something a little in contrast with Margaret, and also considerate of the rich and spicy nature of Neil’s Asian menu.”
The design team also selected a colour scheme that would translate across both daytime and evening sittings.
“One of the things that drew me to that place, the same thing that drew me to Margaret, is that all the windows are facing north and get this beautiful light,” Perry says.
“All that makes really beautiful daytime eating, and then you can control the lighting at night to create a beautiful atmosphere. So, for me, it gives it a life beyond just being able to do dinners or just being able to do lunches.”
This led to the use of deep red timber and ribbed panelling, details which lend Song Bird a vibrant, sophisticated feel. The decision to use green marble, navy carpet and highly polished chrome adds to a luxurious yet restrained aesthetic. “We wanted it pared back so that the architecture really shines,” Choker explains.
One of the most significant design challenges was the kitchen, which Perry wanted to be both functional and visually appealing. The team needed to balance practicality with aesthetics, ensuring every detail was meticulously thought out and executed.
“We spent a lot of time getting the kitchen right. It is probably one of the most beautiful kitchens in the world and it is on full view to anyone walking past Song Bird day or night,” says Alafaci.
Despite the challenges, the team successfully preserved much of the 1968 building’s hallmark features. The main foyer, stairwell and skylight were retained and, where possible, its terrazzo saved. The design also reflects part of the original floorplan, the location of those walls on the ground floor denoted by a change in floor material.
“It was all about how we could connect to those [original details] in a meaningful and elegant way,” says Caon. “We didn’t try to recreate a fancy Chinese restaurant. We created a contemporary restaurant that has overtones of its cuisine.”
While Song Bird’s space could easily be described as “elegant, warm, deep and rich”, the venue downstairs, Bobbie’s, channels the vibe of a classic cocktail bar with a “midcentury, sexy, velvet – plush and lush” aesthetic.
It might sound like romantic nuance when Perry talks about his new run of Sydney restaurants as “the Margaret family”, but there’s a genuine personal history behind it.
Margaret was named after Perry’s own late mother. And Bobbie’s takes its moniker from Linden Pride’s grandfather, the firebrand Australian broadcaster Bob Rogers OAM, who passed away earlier this year at 97.
Pride, who began his career at Perry’s Rockpool at just 17, credits Perry with shaping his approach to hospitality.
“Starting my career at Rockpool [with Neil] really set a high bar for how my career grew,” he recalls.
“I was welcomed into a world of true professional hospitality. When you learn from the best, you develop a deep appreciation that never leaves you.”
That education led Pride and his wife Nathalie Hudson to take over the legendary Caffé Dante in New York’s Greenwich Village. In 2019, the refurbished and renamed Dante was named No.1 by The World’s 50 Best Bars.
Both Perry and Pride were clear that with Bobbie’s, they didn’t want to just create a Sydney version of Dante. It had to speak to the city it was in, and the people who live there.
“Dante is an all-day Italian restaurant and cocktail bar that is quintessential New York,” says Pride. “Bobbie’s is a tribute to my grandfather – an Australian hall-of-fame disc jockey who lived during the golden age of rock’n’roll. A time of big ideas, three-martini lunches and larger-than-life personalities. This is not a speakeasy – if anything, we’ve turned the fun dial up and created a speakloudly.”
Velvet curtains, a DJ booth and a series of custom illustrations along the walls that capture the decadence of a landmark era in music demarcate the shift between upstairs dining at Song Bird and downstairs wining.
Perry and Pride are pouring their all into making sure Bobbie’s offers a world-class experience. Dante-trained staff have been flown in from NYC to teach the local team how to do things to Pride’s standard. But that’s where the connection will end, clarifies Perry.
“What Linden and I wanted to do here with Bobbie’s is create a whole new brand,” says Perry. “What we don’t want, and we’re very clear on that, is to be just Dante in Double Bay. What we want to do is create something that’s uniquely Bobbie’s.”
It’s also about creating something with longevity, and perhaps even a legacy, he says. With the imminent arrival of his first grandchild and a milestone birthday in the distance, he’s more interested in laying roots now than building new empires.
“The only reason that I’ve done this extension is because it was right here in Double Bay. Because it’s the best site, along with Margaret, in Double Bay. And because I’m not leaving Double Bay. Unless I’m going on holiday. I promise.”
