Bill's Darlinghurst building up for grabs as Bill Granger departs

Just days after celebrity chef Bill Granger closed his Darlinghurst cafe, the vacated space has been listed for an October 22 auction.

The corner shop, along with a seven-room boarding house, last traded in 1999 at $960,000. The listing is under instructions from HoganSprowles, the administrator of its Mittagong-based landlord company.

Granger has been in Liverpool St since 1993, with his last registered lease struck in 2013 at $103,000 a year.

Bill and his wife Natalie Elliott live in London with their three daughters after selling at Bronte for $3.4 million in 2014 and in Tamarama for $6.4 million in 2016.

The international chain operates locally at Surry Hills and Bondi, where its move into the Toga-built project came shortly after it closed in Woollahra in 2014.

The whispers are that Toga wants Bills at its latest project, The Hunter in Double Bay, but nothing has been signed.

“There’s been a lot to grapple with these past few months and we think it’s best to close Darlinghurst for a while to focus on Surry Hills and Bondi,” Granger’s Instagram posting advised.

“Obviously, there are lots of restrictions that make life that little bit tougher. Restaurants are not made for social distancing!”

The inopportune marketing by Colliers still suggests the property offered an “ideal ­defensive mix of tenancies” ­despite Bills’ closure.

This article first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph.