What Kylie Did Next

Kylie Kwong’s Sydney restaurant Billy Kwong has closed its doors after 19 years. It’s a time for reflection, writes MAGGIE SCARDIFIELD, but also a chance to look ahead to new beginnings.

- Maggie Scardifield

If Kylie Kwong bumped into her 31-year-old self, she’d have some advice: “You’re going a million miles an hour, KK, slow down.” Back then, in 2000, she says, she’d have been en route to the newly opened Billy Kwong on Crown Street in Sydney’s Surry Hills, running to handwrite the specials or to get the ducks on for roasting, no doubt via her van-turned-storeroom that was parked out the front of the compact restaurant. “We used to pull rabbits out of hats all the time,” she says. “But it was that absolute manic drive and passion that got those doors open and got me here now.”

“Here now” is some kind of endpoint. In January, in the lead up to her 50th birthday and after 19 years of operation, Kwong announced she was closing her restaurant. “A natural desire arose within me about a year-and-a-half ago,” she says. “It became stronger and stronger. I started to observe it deeply and say, ‘okay, what does this all mean?’”

Kwong is sitting in her restaurant, which moved to a 140-seat space in Potts Point five years ago, days before its last service at the end of June. In the days and weeks that follow she’ll shut the doors and look forward to new projects and horizons. But now, there’s a chance to reflect, and to celebrate, with one last banquet.