The team behind Sydney’s popular Porteno restaurant has announced it’ll take over the site currently occupied by Frank Camorra’s MoVida in Surry Hills.
Earlier this week, Camorra announced he’ll be closing his Sydney site and focusing on his Melbourne and Bali endeavours following news that his Sydney CBD location had fallen through.
Twenty-four hours later, Porteno’s owners Ben Milgate, Sarah Doyle, Joe Valore and Elvis Abrahanowicz have confirmed they’ll take over the Holt Street location, allowing its Cleveland site to operate as an event space only.
“It’s something that we’ve been thinking about for a while,” Abrahanowicz told Hospitality. “We just really wanted to focus on Porteno the restaurant and then the Porteno events [separately], just so both can give the best experience.
“We do a lot of weddings on Sundays and we always get asked to do private events. Unfortunately we can only do them on the days we’re closed which are Sunday and Monday … It’s such a beautiful space during the day but no one gets to see it because we’re just prepping in there,” he said.
The new Porteno restaurant will boast a fresh new look and food offering, and while Abrahanowicz is tight-lipped about the menu’s details, he said the chefs will cook with different styles of fire.
“It’ll be different to what Porteno is [now]. We’ll have more fire; it’ll be a bit more traditional. It’ll be pretty kick ass, I think.”
The Holt Street restaurant is due to launch in October, with the Porteno team closing the Cleveland site on one day and reopening in its new home the following day.