Potts Point French restaurant Bistrot 916 to close, Big Poppa’s on Oxford St shuts temporarily

One of Sydney’s hottest restaurants of recent years, Bistrot 916, has announced it will close at the end of 2024. It wasn’t the current restaurant climate that claimed the hatted restaurant, rather the wrecking ball, with its Potts Point building slated for development.

Bistrot 916 opened in February 2021, the first restaurant from Dan Pepperell, Andy Tyson and Michael Clift, who have gone on to also open Clam Bar in the CBD, and Pellegrino 2000, where Taylor Swift chowed on her recent tour.

With construction due to start on its Challis Avenue home “early next year”, the trio is on the hunt for a new site to relocate the restaurant.

“We close this chapter with a mix of pride and nostalgia,” says Clift.

“It’s a shame. We are so happy with the restaurant − the vibe is amazing, our team is great, and it’s busier than ever,” Tyson adds.

“Bistrot 916 has swagger,” the latest edition of the SMH Good Food Guide says of the home of escargot and duck frites “at the Paris end of Potts Point”.

The restaurant’s building, on the corner of Macleay Street, has long been tipped for change. Merivale sold the sprawling site in 2019 for $13 million, its new owners keen to refashion it with hotel accommodation, a bar and restaurant.

Bistrot 916 isn’t the only restaurant this week to succumb to demolition or development.

For the past 21 months, Big Poppa’s restaurant and bar has remained open while a giant wall of hoarding and awning stretched either side of it along an entire block of Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. But operating as an island in the middle of a massive development has caught up with the late-night Italian spot, which has closed its doors, at least temporarily.

“It had a dramatic impact, we are a very successful and established business that’s been around since 2016, but we were blocked, people couldn’t see us, and foot traffic fell away,” says Big Poppa’s co-owner Jared Merlino.

Merlino says Big Poppa’s will return when the Oxford & Foley development is complete, but he hasn’t been given a timeline, a concern shared by neighbouring businesses worried about how long construction at the site will drag on.

Earlier this month, construction delays at the massive Darlinghurst development prompted Melbourne’s Lune Croissanterie to open its Sydney flagship in Rosebery instead.

“All those hoardings are having a big impact,” says Leigh Cholakos, co-owner of Bei Bar & Bistro, which operates on the eastern side of the development. To help bring people back to the area, she has approached the City of Sydney about starting a flea market, adding to the pull of the recently opened 45-seat Qtopia substation theatre.

Restaurateur Ibby Moubadder understands local businesses being frustrated by building delays, but has decided to take a punt at Oxford & Foley, where he’ll open a Japanese-Peruvian restaurant.

Moubadder, who operates a stable of restaurants including Ito and the upmarket Nour in Surry Hills, argues Oxford & Foley will change the area in the long term.

“It’ll activate the lane behind Oxford Street. Our bar will be opposite Shady Pines (and the proposed Soho House development). We’re hoping it’ll bring life to that precinct.”

The big question is, when does Moubadder think his yet-to-be-named restaurant will open at the complex? “Mid next year,” he says.