Australian restaurant owners have announced they have bought a sushi-madre in Sydney’s CBD, hoping it can bring sushi back to the city.
The restaurant, located in the former Royal Victoria Hospital, will open on March 11.
Owner, chef and chef-owner Alex MacGregor, who runs a small-plate restaurant called The Cabbage Man, says the move will help attract more diners.
“We’ll be bringing a lot of different things to Sydney, and I think that will really bring people back to Sydney,” he said.
MacGregor says he is “extremely happy” with the move, and hopes to open his restaurant within the next year.
He says the plan is to open the restaurant in May, but he wants to see it open as soon as possible.
In the meantime, MacGregors is also hoping the sushi will bring in visitors from around the world.
“It’s an opportunity to bring people from Australia back, because we have a very small business here, and we’re looking to be able to offer a little bit more of what Sydney has to offer,” he told ABC radio.
As the owner of the restaurant, Macgregors has a vested interest in the outcome of the sushi-mania that has swept the country in recent months.
Australia has been hit hard by the pandemic, with more than 5,000 deaths recorded, including more than 800 in Sydney alone.
But while there has been some progress in stabilising the Sydney CBD, many areas remain a haven for the virus, with many more people in Sydney still at risk.
Last year, the Federal Government declared Sydney’s harbour and harbourside to be a hotspot for the coronavirus, and is making a concerted effort to curb the spread of the virus.
Earlier this year, more than 200 people were taken to hospital following a “hospice party” held in a central Sydney suburb.
Australian Government funding of hospitals to help cope with the coronaviirus crisis has also seen a spike, with Health Minister Sussan Ley announcing $4.7 million in funding for the next three years.