Silvereye is closing
One of Sydney’s funkiest eating spots is closing, less than a month after it opened.
Silvereye is shutting down next month.
Its last service will be on August 27. British chef Sam Miller is moving home to the UK to be with his family. Miller has made no public comment on the announcement.
Silvereye was set up in the Old Clare Hotel when Miller, a former Noma sous chef, opened the restaurant in an art deco space in the revamped Chippendale pub.
The opening was all part of the Old Clare’s ventures, which include Automata and Jason Atherton’s Kensington Street Social.
Still, it wasn’t cheap.
The 17-course menu costs $175.
Anyone opting for the smaller 11-course menu would be up for $140.
Both offerings had lots of vegetables and were very produce-focused. Also, sommelier James Audas had compiled one of the best wine lists in Sydney. With a focus on natural and organic wines, it was a wine list to die for.
And the food was superb with offerings like baked potatoes cooked in nine different aromas and that perfect fillet of Spanish mackerel,
To get more people in, the restaurant recently introduced a $90 midweek three-course option. Not quite downmarket.
The big question now is what happens to the Old Clare, project of billionaire Singapore-based hotelier Loh Lik Peng.
There are all sorts of rumours now buzzing around Sydney.
One is that expat Australian chef David Pynt, who opened the acclaimed Australian barbecue restaurant Burnt Ends in Singapore in 2013, is looking for a Sydney site. Certainly he has been spotted around town in recent months. So The Old Clare becoming available at the end of next month is certainly fortuitous.
The news is significant, coming just a few weeks before we get into the annual restaurant awards season.
by Leon Gettler, July 28th 2016
