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“It hasn’t been the same since COVID,” says one operator as other venues also exit the northern CBD precinct.
Double Deuce Lounge will call last drinks at its Bridge Street location in the next few months, with the 2025 Good Food Guide Bar of the Year joining a growing number of hospitality venues departing the northern CBD precinct. In the last week, the chefs’ hatted Allta relocated from Bridge Street to Surry Hills, and Kitchen by Mike, the stalwart restaurant on nearby Bent Street, closed.
“Friday afternoons, I’m scratching my head,” Double Deuce co-owner Sebastian “Cosmo” Soto said of the post-pandemic drop-off in late-week trade, fuelled by the new work-at-home culture. “Friday used to be our bread and butter … it hasn’t been the same since COVID.”
Faced with a new economic reality, Double Deuce will pivot to a new model. Soto said they were negotiating on a new site elsewhere in the Sydney CBD, where they could run a smaller, nimbler operation with lower rent. They’ll continue to trade on Bridge Street until the end of their lease. “We’ll probably close [in] late December,” Soto said.
The award-winning hospitality venue – named after the dive bar in the 1989 Patrick Swayze film Road House – is typical of hospitality businesses that have been forced to adapt to a shrinking number of busy days. “People say Thursday is the new Friday, but it’s not [at that level],” Soto said.
With Friday trade shrinking by as much as a third, Soto said lost revenue would have covered the wage of an additional staff member, electricity bills or part of the rent.
When former Rockpool head chef Mike McEnearney opened Kitchen by Mike on Bent Street in 2019, he’d honed his “canteen to the stars” in Rosebery before being lured by the potential of high-volume traffic in the Sydney CBD. Early business in the city was good, but the drop-off in trade on certain days of the week post-COVID became noticeable.
McEnearney said CBD hospitality operators were now transfixed by occupancy in the towers surrounding them, particularly on Mondays and Fridays when WFH is at its peak. And he doesn’t blame them: “If I could work from home I would.”
While Kitchen by Mike continued to trade well Tuesday to Thursday, a strong three-day-a-week business wasn’t sustainable for a lunch-heavy operation. “Our model is better suited to places where you get seven days of traffic. We do really well at the airport, and [in] mid-2026 we’re opening Kitchen by Mike at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.”
“The city has changed over the past few years and, as always, we’re moving with the times,” McEnearney said.
Korean fine-diner Allta doesn’t rely on the spontaneous trade of business lunches or the after-work drinks crowd, but its exit from Bridge Street to Surry Hills was still prompted by a slowdown in the CBD.
“The city, particularly on weekends, has become quieter than it once was, and Surry Hills offers the foot traffic and vibrant atmosphere we need,” Allta’s chief business officer, Anece So, said.
Under the watch of Jung-Su Chang, a former executive chef at acclaimed Seoul fine-diner Jungsik, Allta steamed into the prestigious two chefs’ hat category at last year’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards with its inventive Korean food.
“We decided to move Allta to Surry Hills because it has become the heart of Sydney’s dining scene,” So said. They pounced on the former site of short-lived Nomad restaurant’s wine bar and Lebanese flatbread spin-off, Beau. Allta opened late last week at the Reservoir Street site.
“Our new space is significantly larger, allowing us to reduce the cost of our menu and make our two-hat degustation experience more accessible to a broader range of diners,” So said.
“It’s a change that will help us continue to grow and reach more people who want to enjoy high-quality dining in a lively, central location.”
With the clock ticking on Double Deuce’s time on Bridge Street, Soto is hopeful the pre-Christmas rush will add a welcome bump in trade. Like many hospitality operators, Soto would welcome support from big business and the return of more workers to city buildings.
He misses the warm-up nerves of Friday nights, where the lounge packed out early. “On Friday, I used to get a bit nervous,” Soto said. He’s optimistic about the move, however: “It was probably time, [it will] vibe all the time.”
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