The veteran chef opened his first standalone bar last year with New York bar guru Linden Pride. Now the venue has closed after only eight months of operation.
Sydney chef Neil Perry has closed his Double Bay jazz bar Bobbie’s, and relinquished the top floor of his sprawling Song Bird restaurant, as speculation swirled this week about the future of his four-floor Bay Street mega venue.
In a statement, the veteran chef confirmed the closure and addressed concerns raised by guests about the restaurant’s future after recent media reports regarding Perry’s negotiations with his landlord about reducing his footprint in the space. “Song Bird is absolutely not closing,” Perry said.
Perry also conceded there had been business challenges with the eight-month-old basement bar Bobbie’s and Song Bird, which also opened last year. “Managing three levels as part of the restaurant proved more complex than we anticipated,” he said in the statement.
The launch of Song Bird and Bobbie’s, Perry’s first standalone bar, around the corner from Margaret, Next Door and Baker Bleu was part of the restaurateur’s expansion plans for Double Bay. He and his team spent $13 million on the Bay Street development, $3 million of which was on the bar.
The top floor of Gaden House – the Neville Gruzman-designed building where the mega venture is located – was originally intended as “a dual-purpose event space and a la carte restaurant”. It has been handed back to the landlord and will be repurposed “as a private office tenancy”.
Earlier this month, Good Food reported that Bobbie’s – which Perry opened with New York-based bar operator Linden Pride and his wife Nathalie Hudson – was for sale and being shopped around to Sydney bar operators, some of whom had baulked at the rent.
Perry said at the time he would most probably retain the bar, integrating it into Song Bird and relaunching it as Little Bird. He’s changed course on that approach, having seemingly served his last negroni at the bar.
“Our landlords are in discussions with prospective operators interested in taking over the space,” Perry said. “Linden and I have mutually agreed to close Bobbie’s.”
“Linden’s US-based hospitality group, Dante, is expanding rapidly, with multiple new venues planned across America in the next 18 months,” he said.
This news follows Perry taking a different approach with Song Bird. In April, he shifted from its strict Cantonese food brief by adding Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese flavours to the menu.
The chef said he wanted the flexibility to explore other parts of Asia, and revive some of the classic dishes from earlier in his career, at restaurants such as Wokpool.
The restaurateur also recently stepped aside as chair at the Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association, the industry body he helped to co-found last May. The move allowed him to focus on his business interests, he said. “I don’t think I have enough time for it,” he said at the time.
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