The fire within
Neil Perry was set to retire when a Double Bay restaurant site captured his attention, writes Elizabeth Meryment
If you read and paid attention to the headlines last July, it may have seemed that arguably Australia’s most famous chef had grilled his last restaurant steak and folded up his chef’s whites for good.
Neil Perry, in the midst of the crisis that engulfed the hospitality industry during the peak of COVID, was exiting Rockpool Dining Group, the behemoth of 80-plus restaurants he created and tended for 33 years, starting with Rockpool restaurant in The Rocks in 1987.
“As the business now needs to embark on a new chapter it is time for a fresh start,” Perry said in a statement at the time.
“It will never be easy to move on from the restaurants I founded, and I do so with a heavy heart. But as the business and the sector set their sights on new beginnings, it is the right time for the next generation to have the opportunity afforded to me more than 40 years ago.”
“Neil Perry retires,” screamed the headlines across the food media.
Less than a year later, Perry is on the phone from his forthcoming restaurant in Bay St, Double Bay, working on menus and overseeing the installation of a luxurious ACME&Co and David Caon fit out on the ground level of the Fortis Group’s $12m Pallas House development.
“I’ve called the restaurant Margaret, after my mother,” he tells Local Bayside in an interview ahead of its opening, slated for the first week of June.
“My mother was the matriarch of a large family and she was the embodiment of generosity and care, and generosity and care have been the whole philosophy of my business.
“She passed away in 2015, but she was such an important part of my life. This is the first time since 1983 that I have opened a restaurant that is 100% Neil Perry owned, so the name feels right. This time I am getting to make all the decisions.”
He pauses and adds, wryly: “It’s kind of strange making all the decisions, knowing the only person to blame is yourself.”
Perry is a man with restaurants in his veins and some would say the chef in him couldn’t be kept away from the pans for long after his departure from Rockpool Dining Group (where he remains a shareholder and mentor). He says a few things drew him into the idea of creating Margaret, not the least of which was the attractive space of the new restaurant in the heart of Double Bay.
“I just saw the site in Pallas House in Double Bay and thought, ‘wow, this is the best site in the entire eastern suburbs’,” he says. “I thought, ‘this is amazing’.
“Then I met (Fortis director) Charles Mellick and I saw that his group is making beautiful apartments and great commercial spaces and buying buildings and land that’s in the right locations for what they want to do. I like that. And at the same time, I missed the day-to-day running of a business.”
The restaurant will seat 128 inside and 50 outside in a covered, north-facing alfresco area overlooking Guilfoyle Park. The menu will be classic Perry — produce-based, high-quality, contemporary Australian food.
There will be classic French-inspired offerings, rotisserie chickens, fabulous steaks, an emphasis on beautiful vegetable dishes, oysters shucked to order and a sizzling, 40-seat bar.
Perry envisages the restaurant opening all day and night, and for it to become an easy, yet world-class, neighbourhood drawcard for people of the eastern suburbs to drop in with family, for lunch, or for special occasions. There will be plenty of high-quality touches including clothed tables, leather banquettes, marble and limestone tiles and art on the walls (it’s a Neil Perry restaurant after all).
“We’re going for simple sophistication,” Perry says. “We want to open the dinner service at 5pm so people can come with family. We want people to feel they can rock up, eat some oysters, have a Negroni or a glass of wine — or a late lunch. We want to create a humble neighbourhood restaurant.”
For all its simple aims, Perry acknowledges that Margaret will be located in one of the most sophisticated locales in Sydney, with a well-educated dining public that is very familiar with his style.
“You’ve got Double Bay, Woollahra, Potts Point, Vaucluse, Rose Bay all in the area,” he says. “Then you have people who want to leave the city to have lunch. It’s eight minutes to Double Bay from the city in an Uber and the lower north shore is just through the tunnel.”
Perry says he is confident the opportunities for Double Bay will only grow as more quality operators, including Bill Granger (see Sunny Side Up, page 16) and Damien Monley, well known for launching Flat White in Woollahra and who is also launching in Pallas House, move into the area with the new developments.
“Double Bay is a fantastic village and there’s an opportunity to build on that,” he says. “I’m excited, super excited. Already there are some very good restaurants in Double Bay. But I think we can make the best one.”
Margaret
30-36 Bay St, Double Bay
Launching early June