A plan to rescue Sydney institution Golden Century from administration has been approved by creditors, The Australian reports, meaning Sydneysiders might not have to bid farewell to the late night Chinese restaurant after all.
The Chinatown restaurant closed its doors last month after an unprofitable few years. The effects of Sydney’s lockdown were reportedly the nail in the coffin.
The $4.5 million rescue plan – which was proposed by the family owners – includes selling $1.15 million worth of wine from the restaurant’s cellars. Its huge kitchen and the equipment within, meanwhile, will go to the banks.
Staff will get paid their outstanding wages in full, however they’ll only get 47.4 cents in the dollar for redundancy entitlements. The owners themselves will miss out on over $1,000,000 of entitlements.
“For me that means the management has treated them well in the past to get such overwhelming support,” administrator Desmond Teng told The Australian.
“There’s time now for [the company behind Golden Century] to strategise and think about what they want to do next.”
Golden Century was founded by Hong Kong natives Eric and Linda Wong when they moved to Sydney in 1989. Their business was a hit and it quickly moved to the current Haymarket location in 1990.
The restaurant was not only a popular late-night haunt for chefs and civilians alike, but it was also graced by the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Rod Stewart and Anthony Bourdain.
The Wongs’ empire quickly expanded to include XOPP at Darling Harbour and The Century at The Star casino, but these joints haven’t been affected by the main restaurant’s financial problems.
Golden Century gained a reputation as a neutral ground for a who’s who of NSW politics as well as by all the titans of the hopso industry. For most of us, though, the real significance here is that we’ll hopefully be able to gorge on seafood at 2am sometime in the near future.
