Veteran chef and restaurateur Opel Khan has cashed in his chips, closed most of his Sydney restaurants and issued a warning on the perilous state of the hospitality industry. “Food costs have gone up 40 per cent, we can’t increase the price we charge customers. Wages are up, interest rates [are up],” Khan says.
Khan tried to bend to the market. In May, he replaced the upmarket Khanaa restaurant in Surry Hills with Bistronomie, an affordable eatery he described as a venue for its time in a period of tough trading conditions and high interest rates, which are biting into consumer spending. Bistronomie has now also closed, and Khan has scrapped plans to open a second Bistronomie in the Potts Point site where he operated the hatted venue Metisse .
The latter was a luxe restaurant that opened in 2019 with head chef Benoit Lollichon, a graduate of Restaurant Guy Savoy, the Paris eatery with two Michelin stars. Khan has also shut Acqua E Farina, his pint-sized pasta restaurant. The chef says he’s been able to find new operators for the sites, with Acqua E Farina’s original Potts Point location earmarked for a Vietnamese eatery and the Bistronomie site in Surry Hills set to be rebirthed by a Chinese restaurant operator.
Khan says he’s also out of the Metisse site. Khan maintains he isn’t alone in his outlook that there needs to be major economic change before hospitality turns a corner: “A friend with lots of venues says you just can’t make money at the moment.” K.
