‘Not everyone’s going to like it’: MCA’s rooftop cafe to reopen as luxury diner

Sydney has lost a poster child for cheap eats and billion-dollar views, with the terrace cafe at Circular Quay’s Museum of Contemporary Art to reopen later this month as an upmarket restaurant.

Overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, the level-four dining space was a popular destination for international visitors and locals alike seeking a sandwich while enjoying panoramic harbour views.

In May, the museum announced the appointment of Victoria-based The Big Group as its new hospitality partner. When the group opened a cafe in a new space on the ground floor in June and closed the upper-level terrace cafe for renovations, speculation grew about the secretive “new hospitality offer”.

The answer is Canvas restaurant, which will soft launch in late September before its grand opening next month. While a step up in price from the old MCA cafe, Canvas’ expected price tag of three courses for less than $100 is competitive in an area where the four-course lunch menu at nearby Quay restaurant costs $220.

“It’s like art, not everyone’s going to like it,” Big Group founder Bruce Keebaugh says of the restaurant pivot. The new strategy is not related to customers who hovered over a single purchase at the old cafe or people who used the space for work meetings, he says. Instead, Keebaugh argues: “It is too premium a space to give over to it [a lower price point].”

Despite the new direction, Keebaugh doesn’t anticipate large profits at the experimental Canvas, whose moniker refers to the museum’s artistic surrounds. “A blank canvas,” he says of the concept, which will rotate chef talent through its kitchen.

Canvas has already lined up former Tetsuya’s guest chef Josh Raine for the first three-month stint. “We want it to be a space where young talent can be showcased, or we might try and get someone like Skye Gyngell [the UK-based Sydney chef], who we’ve worked with before, to do a short-term residency,” Keebaugh says.

Keebaugh also wants Canvas to be a space where international chefs interested in opening a restaurant in Australia can dip a toe in the market on a trial basis, right next to the harbour.

“It’ll open for lunches only; at night, we’ll use it as an event space,” Keebaugh says. Big Group cut its teeth with big events, catering and venues such as Glasshouse on the Yarra River in Melbourne before branching into the Sydney market.

“The new cafe on the ground floor [of the MCA] has gone really well, and it has tapped into a new demographic,” Keebaugh says.

Ballooning costs and high interest rates are affecting higher-end local restaurants, resulting in a roll-call of closures from Red Bird to Bar Grazie. Venues such as Lucky Kwong, Tetsuya’s and Cirrus Dining shut for various other reasons. So is now the right time to open a fine-dining restaurant when there’s a mad scramble for less expensive hospitality products?

“Let’s call it a fine experience,” Keebaugh says. “And when everyone went left, I always went right.”

“Will Canvas be the biggest money spinner? Probably not. Will it tell a beautiful story?” Keebaugh hopes the answer is “yes”.