What started out as a single restaurant in Double Bay is turning into a mini-empire for Neil Perry, who announced in February 2023 that he’s opening an Asian restaurant in the well-heeled suburb.

First came Margaret, which expanded to Baker Bleu and his wine bar, Next Door, coming next is Asian-inspired restaurant, Songbird due to open this year when the renovation of the Neville Gruzman-designed building at 24 Bay Street is completed.

“Asian flavours have been a part of my life since I can remember. My father was crazy about Chinese food. I was lucky enough to be eating authentic Chinese food since the late 60s, early 70s and I’ve been eating it ever since,” Perry says.

It’s also been an important part of his work life, with Perry making a name for himself with Wokpool in the 1990s before opening Spice Temple and Jade Temple.

The menu is still in the conceptual stage, but Perry knows what he wants to do. Rather than straight Cantonese food, it’ll be a modern Asian restaurant with a mixture of Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

“There’ll be some dishes that are classic but best versions of themselves and ones with a few modern twists, but people will still very much recognise them as being really awesome, tasty dishes they can relate to,” he says. “Fantastic roast duck will be a big focus.”

Perry is applying his ethos of beautiful produce combined with technical skills to the new venue.

“Somebody said to me, ‘Margaret is the culmination of all your cooking over the years to create something unique,’ and it will be the same with this restaurant,” Perry says.

“It will be the next iteration of where and what I like to eat in Asia and what my inspirations are. I want to do something new and different, but using the best produce possible.

“It will have the same attention to detail and craft that we bring to everything we do. It’s safe to say it will be a beautiful sister restaurant to Margaret.”

When Margaret opened in 2021, Perry said he was happy to stick to one restaurant. An empire wasn’t the plan, yet here we are.

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“It seemed like a natural fit when the Neville Gruzman building became available. I’ve always watched it, it’s had a few different iterations, from commercial and retail to a bit derelict over many years and is quite a prominent building in Double Bay,” he says.

“It was a no-brainer. I think it’s most definitely the best building in Double Bay with its mid-Century, minimalistic vibe and Fortis Development Group have done such a great job in the Margert precinct that we started a dialogue pretty early.

“It happened very organically, if it was in the city I wouldn’t do it. The reality is I live and work in Double Bay, I’m here every morning seeing people buy bread at the bakery and that morphs into hanging around for lunch and dinner. If it was further away, I couldn’t spend the same amount of time in the venues.

“I’ve been asked to do versions of Margaret interstate and overseas, but I don’t want to leave Double Bay. Part of it is community, but part of it is that I consider myself retired.

“I’m where I want to be. I don’t want to do more brand extensions (other than Qantas). I’m happy doing what I can in what I think is one of the best villages in Australia, if not the world.”

Song Bird will open Friday, August 30. Reservations are now open.

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