After a few false starts, Kings Cross looks to finally have its mojo back with a new wave of hospitality destinations attracting a fresh set of diners. Reborn celebrity bar Pelicano prepares to serve its first customers next week in the former site of Hugos Lounge, while further down Bayswater Road, Don’s Katsu will fry its first batch of pork on Friday.
Lockout laws ravaged the area a decade ago with high-profile closures. Hugos Lounge became the poster child and then commercial casualty of the now-retracted legislation. Hugos’ outspoken owner, David Evans, cited a drop in trade of 60 per cent before it closed in 2015. Andrew Becher, a restaurateur with a stable of hatted inner-east restaurants including Parlar at Potts Point and Surry Hills’ Armorica, carefully bided time before moving on the site.
Buoyed by initiatives to remove red tape for late-night operators, Becher will next week open Pelicano’s first stage: a restaurant, terrace and cocktail bar, followed a fortnight later by its nightclub.
It’s a plucky gamble to try to recapture the magic of an era in which Hugos Lounge was named Australia’s best nightclub six times, but Becher points to other green shoots in the area. Icebergs restaurateur Maurice Terzini is involved at a new “supper and a show” concept on Bayswater Road, Mirage KX, and bar-eatery Arms Length opened on Kellett Street in August, after relocating from Surry Hills.
