Matt Moran loses Opera Bar after 24 years

• Solotel and Matt Moran have lost Opera Bar to Applejack Hospitality.
• The group also own other Sydney venues like RAFI in North Sydney, Bopp & Tone in the CBD, The Butler in Potts Point, and The Botanist in Kirribilli.
• The new contract will begin in mid-September for Opera Bar.

Following what could have only been a ferocious competitive tender process, Sydney’s iconic Opera Bar is set for its biggest change since the venue first opened in 2001, shadowed by the sails of Sydney Opera House. Running along the edge of Sydney Harbour, the bar has for the past 24 years been guided by veteran chef Matt Moran and hospitality group Solotel. That’s no longer the case.

The celebrity chef and Solotel have handed over operations of Sydney’s most emblematic bar to Applejack Hospitality, the reliable group behind some of the city’s favourite restaurants and bars, including RAFI in North Sydney, Bopp & Tone in the CBD, The Butler in Potts Point, and The Botanist in Kirribilli.

Applejack co-founders Ben Carroll and Hamish Watts cite the impressive win as a “dream come true” for the team since the hospitality group first popped up in 2011.

“To be entrusted as custodians of venues at the Sydney Opera House—the world’s most iconic cultural stage—is both humbling and inspiring.

The surprise announcement only dropped today so we’re yet to find out what Applejack’s specific plans are for the iconic venue, but given their track record, it’s looking like we’ll see some big, exciting changes to the bar, which received its most significant refresh in 2014 when Matt Moran came on board to elevate the offerings.

“It just needed a refresh,” Moran told Broadsheet in 2014. “The market has changed since Opera Bar first began—food has changed, and the overall offerings available to consumers have changed.”

Eleven years later, and the market has obviously moved far beyond what Opera Bar has been offering.

“Recently, the food there has been disappointing; sometimes change is good,” said one person on a Facebook post under Good Food’s announcement, while several others agreed. “The food and service have definitely dropped over the last 3 years.”

While Opera Bar has lately been seen as more of a “tourist thing,” I’m confident Applejack has what it takes to match the bar’s iconic setting with an equally high standard. It didn’t take long before Bopp & Tone became one of the hottest places to eat around Wynyard, and the perennially-packed The Butler rarely misses.

The new contract will begin in mid-September for Opera Bar, with the neighbouring House Canteen also falling to Applejack in mid-November. Refurbishments are planned for next year, but again, details are incredibly scant.

A controversial history

Opera Bar is one of the most coveted pieces of property in the entire country, and it’s always been that way. The reasons are obvious. As part of the Sydney Opera House, it nails that sweet spot of prime location and a seemingly bottomless pit of commercial revenue, given how much of a “bucketlist” experience it’s become for tourists visiting Sydney.

The only other time Opera Bar was put to tender was in 2014, which quickly turned into a legal fight after David Evans, who at the time operated Hugos in Potts Point, accused an architect of leaking his plans and the Sydney Opera House Trust of allowing Solotel to make a second submission for tender after the supposed deadline. According to this article, the legal battle resulted in a private settlement last year.