Gastro Park, chef Grant King’s Potts Point restaurant, will be the latest of Sydney’s fine dining establishments to close its doors.

King opened the Potts Point establishment six years ago, and will close it on Saturday May 20. It’s not an unprecedented move either: we’re now seeing an unfortunate trend emerging in Sydney’s food world.

Just like our live music venues, Sydney’s fine dining restaurants have been dropping like flies lately. Business after business have been announcing their closure, despite their grand reputations and clear track records of success.

So what’s going wrong? Are Sydneysiders simply not leaving the house much any more? Or is our obsession with the humble (and frugal) Instagram-friendly burger and fries changing the face of the food scene forever?

Five Sydney Restaurants That Have Closed Their Doors In The Last 12 Months

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Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr

1. Marque, Surry Hills

Previously wearing an incredible three hats, the top honour from The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Good Food Guide, Marque stopped serving in July last year. After 17 years of business, the critically acclaimed French-inspired restaurant was one of Sydney’s last.

2. Guillaume, Paddington

After only two-and-a-half years,chef Guillaume Brahimi closed his self-titled restaurant at the end of 2016. Four in Hand byGuillaume was previously run byColin Fassnidge, the My Kitchen Rules judge and charismatic Irish lookalike of Severus Snape. Upon the announcement of Guillaume’s closure, the chef said he was looking forward to focusing more on his bistros.

3. Rockpool/Eleven Bridge, Sydney

Celebrity chef Neil Perry announced that he will be closing his famous restaurant (now known as Eleven Bridge) in May, and helping its new occupants turn the site into a Chinese restaurant. That said, the new owner is the Rockpool Dining Group, of which Perry is the Chief Brand and Culinary Officer.Rockpool Dining Group also owns The Burger Project, one of Perry’s latest ventures: acasual gourmet burger chain in Sydney and Melbourne.

In a statement to the BRAG, Rockpool Dining Group said it “is taking a balanced portfolio approach, slightly weighted towards casual and fun casual and including premium and fast casual”.

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Photo via Rockpool Dining Group

4. MoVida, Surry Hills

MoVida was a Spanish tapas restaurant in Surry Hills that shut up shop halfway through last year, and the Sydney branch of a highly successful Melbourne chain. Esteemed chefFrank Camorra thought it was best to concentrate the business’s attention on its multipleMelbourne spots, and its site in Bali.

5. Silvereye, Chippendale

Sam Miller, former head chef of Silvereye, previously worked directly below some of the world’s most influential chefs during his time at Noma. Voted the world’s best restaurant a ridiculous four times, not even Noma’s reputation could stand the test of time in Sydney’s food scene. Silvereye closed up last August, with chef Miller moving home to Englandto explore other food adventures.

Among all of these sad departures from the Sydney dining scene, if the reason for Rockpool’s demise is anything to go by, we may have a pretty telling explanation for this alarming new trend. Many of Sydney’s best chefs have declared an interest in moving onto more simple and casual food pursuits, rather than the fine dining experience that seems to be diminishing in demand.

…and yet, many of these chefs and their established chains have fine dining ventures still afloat in other countries or cities – especially, dare we say it, Melbourne.

Sydney, it’s time to take a good hard look at yourself, before the CBD becomes a ghost town.

Main image via movida.com.au

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