Double Bay's Cosmopolitan Cafe placed in liquidation

The one-time haunt of James Packer and his father Kerry before him, Double Bay's Cosmopolitan Cafe has been a fixture in the exclusive suburb for decades. At the height of its Sydney power pull, shipping tycoons would jostle for tables with the likes of stockbroker Rene Rivkin and socialite and philanthropist Sonia McMahon.

But in a worrying sign, the venue has been closed for the past fortnight, and regular visitors to the bayside suburb have been in contact with Good Food asking about its future.

The news isn't good. The business has been listed on the ASIC website as being in liquidation.

A spokesman for Westburn Advisory, which is handling the liquidation, says cafe and restaurant trade in the COVID environment of the past few years contributed to its predicament. Westburn is still in the early stages of dealing with creditors, so a tally on its financial state remains a work in progress.

The director of the Double Bay eatery, seasoned hospitality operator Anthony Prior, was unlucky in his timing, relaunching the Cosmo in November 2019, on the eve of the global pandemic.

In a March 2020 review, Good Food's Jill Dupleix welcomed back one of the pioneers of Sydney's cafe culture.

"Nipped, tucked and cosmetically enhanced, it's looking ready for anything. Let's just say I haven't seen a massive ice bucket piled high with bottles of Moet and 500-gram tins of caviar next to the espresso machine for, like, ever."

▪ An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed John Duncan as an owner.