The trio behind Neptune’s Grotto and Pellegrino 2000 will launch their next venture at a site just near Ivy.
Sydney hospitality trio Andy Tyson, Dan Pepperell and Mikey Clift have successfully launched Italian and French restaurants, and a New York-style grill. Next, they’ll turn their attention to Asia, with a new Chinese-inspired restaurant set to open near Martin Place.
The team behind Sydney restaurants Pellegrino 2000, Neptune’s Grotto and Clam Bar – plus Bistrot 916, which closed last year due to the redevelopment of its Potts Point building – have secured the former site of Long Chim restaurant, on the corner of Pitt Street and Angel Place in the CBD, close to Merivale’s Ivy precinct.
The Chinese-inspired restaurant, which will be called Grandfather’s, will open in late winter 2025.
“[Chinese] is the world’s greatest cuisine,” says Tyson, adding that the venue will focus on regional Chinese cuisines Cantonese and Sichuan.
With the recruitment of a head chef currently under way, the trio is leaving some culinary wriggle room. This isn’t to say they’re short of knowledge. “Mikey [Clift] was at Rockpool and loosely involved at Spice Temple, and we have a big team with lots of experience,” Tyson says.
The Sydney dining market already has plenty of recent high-stakes investment in Chinese restaurants. Chinatown institution Golden Century was reborn at Crown in January and Neil Perry splashed $10 million on Song Bird at Double Bay (although the chef recently added some broader Asian dishes to its Cantonese menu).
Merivale is also strongly tipped to include an Asian restaurant as part of an operations management agreement at Club Rose Bay, with the mega-group’s Queen Chow Chinese restaurant brand a rumoured inclusion.
Tyson says they aren’t chasing a trend or a gap in the market, given the Martin Place precinct is relatively short on Chinese restaurants (although he notes that China Lane is essentially next door).
“We look at the four walls and think about the greatest thing that can go into it,” he says. It’s a strategy that’s worked so far, with the team’s venues awarded Good Food Guide hats since the launch of Bistrot 916 in 2021.
Tyson declines to weigh in on Long Chim’s departure from the site last December. Launched in 2016 by Bangkok-based Sydney chef David Thompson, Long Chim listed a number of parting gripes on social media when the restaurant closed last December, including scaffolding blocking its entrance and rent levels.
The Long Chim space fitted the Clam Bar team’s plans and, with capacity for about 120 seats, presents a new challenge for the experienced operators: Tyson says the restaurant will have about twice the capacity of the trio’s other venues.
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