The doors have closed on two high-profile Italian restaurants in Sydney.
In a brutal week for Sydney’s Italian restaurants, the doors have closed on ambitious $6 million CBD fine-diner Seta and the high-profile Parramatta outpost of CicciaBella.
Seta owner Tonci Farac confirmed the landlord at his Barrack Street restaurant had stepped in and changed the locks.
“We’re in dispute with the landlord, I can’t say much as it’s in the hands of lawyers,” Farac says.
The closure of the three-year-old CicciaBella was less dramatic.
“We were in contractual negotiations with the landlord, but couldn’t come to an agreement. But we leave on good terms,” says CicciaBella owner Maurice Terzini.
Those negotiations included an open bar area the restaurateur says “never happened”.
Both restaurants suffered difficult births as COVID-era launches. Seta, in particular, had a run of bad luck.
Farac seemingly had all the pieces of the puzzle in place. An experienced operator (he opened one of Sydney’s first mega restaurants, Wildfire at Circular Quay) alongside Mr Wong designer Michael McCann and chef Matteo Vigotti of Italy’s Novecento and Peck.
Seta had all the…