Pizza Hut/Belfield Charcoal BBQ House/Seoul Hoikwan Restaurant – Belfield, NSW
This is the first of what will doubtless be many entries about Pizza Huts. In 1999, Pizza Hut HQ decided that eat-in restaurants were no longer viable, and spent the next ten years selling them off. Only a handful, if that, still exist. What’s funny is how the new owners mostly haven’t bothered to disguise that their new acquisition was once a Pizza Hut, but we’ll get to those.
This one is fair enough; it’s just another restaurant. Why change it? However, this one is notable because it was Australia’s first Pizza Hut. It was built in 1970, and apart from its iconic red roof now being green, it doesn’t look that different.
You missed a spot, guys.
The Keg/Vaby’s/Bonfire Brazilian Grill – Beverly Hills, NSW
On the corner adjacent to the Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant is the new Bonfire Brazilian Grill, but even during its recent past as Vaby’s Mediterranean Grill, the restaurant has never shaken its original name – the Keg. The boom in rooftop advertising in the area must have coincided with the opening of Kingsford Smith Airport’s third runway.
EXTINGUISHED UPDATE: As of late 2012, the fire is OUT. The Bonfire Grill has left the building, but it won’t be long until someone else gets in there and tries to make a go of another restaurant. Good luck…
ROCKY UPDATE: Aaaaand it’s Pancakes on the Rocks. Although in this case it’s a bit more like Pancakes 20km south-west of the Rocks.
Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant/Glass Wool Insulation Wholesale/For Lease – Beverly Hills, NSW
A fixer upper.
Before the M5 sapped the area of its thoroughfare traffic, Beverly Hills was once a cutthroat restaurant circuit. Culinary competition was fierce, with even the road’s primary supermarket eventually converted into yet another restaurant. The strip along King Georges Road is still home to a surprisingly wide variety of cuisines for south-west Sydney, but the glory days are certainly behind it.
That’s a Ming Dynasty automatic door.
Chinese restaurants are well represented on the strip, so it’s no surprise to see a corpse of a fallen rival rotting on the sidelines. The Four Seasons Chinese Restaurant, on the corner of King Georges and Stoney Creek roads, has the distinction of having maintained its chintzy Oriental decor even through its time as a “GL S FOOL INSU ION Wholesal” establishment.
The facade is in surprisingly good condition, but the restaurant itself is empty. The signage is pretty tattered, none moreso than the light-up sign above the shopfront.
The nearby footbridge acts as a Texas School Book Depository with which we can solve this mystery:
Back and to the left.
Despite the restaurant’s outwardly ramshackle appearance, we can at least take comfort in the fact the building must be well insulated.
EXPOSED UPDATE:
In a development only I could care about, the owners have apparently torn down the rinky-dink Oriental decoration, revealing more of this shop’s history. Behold:
Big John. That’s the big reveal. Once upon a time, Big John either owned or operated out of this place, and the only way they could hide his involvement (and why should they want to do that, hmm?) was by covering him up. But now he’s back, and the secret is out. If you ARE Big John, get in touch.
Past/Lives of the Near Future 