"We are required to conduct a public tender for our expiring food and beverage contracts in line with NSW Government procurement policy." All of our dining venues are operated under contract, most of which have been in place for more than a decade and expire in the first half of 2014," Watson said.
"As we said when we announced the tender, it is not in any way an expression of dissatisfaction with existing operators. Sydney Opera House commercial director David Watson described Guillaume at Bennelong as "a fixture of the Opera House" and thanked Brahimi for "his very significant contribution". He made the place his own and that’s what you have to do, otherwise you are just a tenant.” “At Bennelong, honoured the iconic Opera House site with elegant, rich, lush, bourgeois French cooking, informed by a modern Sydney sensibility. It’s the place from which to show off Sydney,” Durack said. “The Sydney Opera House deserves a great restaurant inside it as well as buzzy bistros and fresh seafood specialists and coffee houses. He said Brahimi “has been one of the key contributors to great Sydney dining for the past 20 years”. Guillaume, in his years there, has honoured everything that the Opera House has stood for and offered us a unique and special experience … It's a shame that you aren't going to be able to have that same experience anymore.” “It's an end of an era for the Opera House. We're going to excel at what we do.”īrahimi declined to say what his next move would be, saying only that he would announce future plans for his team and restaurant “in the coming months”.Ĭhief restaurant reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, Terry Durack, said Brahimi’s departure was “very sad news”. “It's been 12 great years of my life and I'm looking forward to the next project and in the short term, the next six months of being very busy at Bennelong. The man behind the Merivale restaurant empire, Justin Hemmes, was rumoured to be scoping the site but a spokeswoman for his company has confirmed he did not put in a tender.īrahimi, who also operates bistros in Melbourne and Perth, said the decision to close wasn’t difficult, although it was an emotional time for him and his staff.
The restaurant, which was awarded two hats in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2013, will operate as normal until the end of the year, when the existing lease at the Sydney Opera House ends.
Twelve years later, my vision is the same, if not stronger.” “I accept their vision but my vision 12 years ago was to have a fine dining restaurant and to try to be the best at what I do. This clearly involves a very different vision," Brahimi said. The Opera House Trust is now seeking a bistro style restaurant, cafe and bar. "Our goal was always to run one of the best restaurants in the country, befitting such an iconic venue.
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