Just In: Bentley Team to Close Monopole – but a New Mediterranean Diner is Coming

Monopole has lived many lives.

In 2012, it entered the scene as a sleek French-leaning wine bar in Potts Point. It moved to the city in 2020 and, last year, it pivoted to become more of a traditional French restaurant.

Now, after 13 years, Monopole will close after dinner service on Saturday September 6.

“We’re really proud of what Monopole has achieved during this time. When you wind back the clock on Monopole as a brand, it started as almost a version of bistronomy. Then we just continued that legacy [and] now it’s ended up as more of Monopole: The Restaurant … The product isn’t really the problem,” Bentley Group’s Brent Savage tells Broadsheet.

Instead, he puts the closure down to a combination of location and the end of the lease. Savage is leaving the door open for Monopole to return “if everything falls into place”.

But make no mistake, Savage and co-owner Nick Hildebrandt aren’t giving up on the 2000 postcode. Rather, they’re shifting their focus closer to the harbour, where they’re opening a new eastern Mediterranean restaurant in Barangaroo this summer.

Watermans will be a 120-seat venue in the new Lendlease development at Barangaroo.

“[Barangaroo] is an exciting part of the city. I don’t think it’s reached its full potential there yet. We’ve been down there for seven years prior [with Cirrus ]. This is an opportunity that we really wanted to take,” says Savage.

Leading the kitchen will be former Barzaari chef Darryl Martin, who made a name for himself cooking Cypriot, Lebanese, Greek and Turkish food at the since-closed Marrickville diner.

Watermans will serve “eastern Mediterranean food from the Levant,” says Savage. “It’s something that’s always inspired me. It’s food that I love to eat. We thought it was time really to push it forward, and hopefully we can give it a platform that does it justice. And we’ve got a fantastic head chef. [He’s] someone whose cooking I’ve always admired as well. He’s probably one of the more knowledgeable people that I’ve ever worked alongside. The depth of knowledge that he has is incredible.”

The team expects to open with punchy “vegetable-forward” dishes including hummus with green zhoug, and labneh with cucumber and lemon jam. Bigger dishes will include John Dory with chermoula, and pomegranate-glazed lamb with pickled radishes and black lime.

The space will have a custom-built woodfired grill and oven, an open kitchen and a large outdoor area decked out with greenery. It’s been designed by Chris Grinham and Pascale Gomes-McNabb.

Monopole will close on Saturday, September 6. Watermans is set to open in October.