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The Continental Deli team unveiled its all-day vegetarian eatery earlier this year as part of a new Australia Street precinct, but the venue is already set to pivot to a new concept.
Newtown’s Flora restaurant closed this week, seven months after it opened with a vegetarian pitch in a hot cluster of new restaurants on Australia Street. A new name and concept will launch in the space next month.
“People who did dine here loved it, there just weren’t enough of them,” Flora co-owner Joe Valore said.
Hospitality group Paisano and Daughters added multiple new restaurants this year to the Australia Street strip where they’ve long operated Continental Deli. New arrivals, the seafood-focused Mister Grotto and Italian restaurant Osteria Mucca, met with great reviews from the critics, as did Flora, which snared a 15/20 Good Food review from Lee Tran Lam in April.
While the Flora review heaped praise on “the kitchen’s ability to convince veg-avoiding sceptics”, by July the restaurant was relaxing its strict vegetarian pitch, and had also changed head chef. Overnight, diners grazing on the vegetarian set menu were side-by-side with customers tucking in roast Bannockburn chicken.
When Flora opened its doors early this year, it felt like the right restaurant in the right location. Newtown has an established vegetarian community and sits within easy reach of a large catchment of inner-west diners.
Whether there is a shift to omnivorous or flexitarian diets, Sydney has lost plant-based venues, including long-time favourite Bodhi at Cook + Phillip and Eden at Bondi Beach, while others, such as Yellow at Potts Point, continue to thrive.
Valore didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind Flora’s closure, but said the team listened to its customers and was heartened by the success of their other venues on the strip.
He’s also keeping his cards close to his chest on the new concept to replace Flora in the smart dining room with neatly crafted wood-panelling. “It’ll open mid-October,” Valore said.
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