French-born Antoine Moscovitz has signed to open a 110-seat French restaurant at Barangaroo

ONE of the inner-west’s favourite chefs — French-born Antoine Moscovitz — is planning to open a 110-seat French restaurant at Barangaroo, as part of an ambitious shake up of his restaurants.

The new venue, to simply be called Antoine’s, will open next year in Tower 1 of the project. But the deal has come at the expense of one of his two Concord venues, one of which has disappeared.

Moscovitz has merged his two current restaurants — Provence by Antoine and Antoine’s Grill — into a single entity called Antoine’s Grill, at 50 Mortlake St, Concord (the site previously of Provence by Antoine). The original Antoine’s Grill on Majors Bay Rd, has closed. The merger follows a renovation of the Mortlake St venue, the addition of a new dry ageing room and the installation of a new menu.

The chef says he has been surprised by the local enthusiasm for quality, well-priced French food, with the restaurant regularly turning away 50 customers a night due to demand. And he says he now wants to take the restaurant up a level, while keeping the prices affordable.

“We are competing directly with restaurants in the city, and I think we can take on any restaurant in Sydney,” he says.

The new menu will include degustation options, including a local’s degustation of four courses for $60. Mocovitz described the move to Barangaroo as “exciting”, with the expected opening date late in 2016.

“There will be no other French food in that tower, so we have the exclusive on French food there,” he says.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, Elizabeth Meryment, 18^th August 2015
Originally published as: French-born Antoine Moscovitz has signed to open a 110-seat French restaurant at Barangaroo