Gran Torino

After transforming Song Bird at lightning speed, Neil Perry delivers la dolce vita in his Double Bay enclave, writes ALEXANDRA CARLTON.

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WHEN NEIL PERRY DECLARED his plans to shut down Chinese fine-diner Song Bird, in Sydney's Double Bay, and replace it with something Italian, many eyebrows rose, and a few hearts sank. Could he really do that? Pour his heart and soul - not to mention a reported five or six million dollars of his own cash - into a project and then scrap it in less than a year? Was he mad?

Perhaps. Or perhaps he's simply Australia’s most dogged, determined restaurateur. Song Bird, which fluttered across three storeys of a mid-century office building, plus a bar below, didn’t work, and you could write a thesis on the reasons why. But the Eastern Suburbs Energiser Bunny has never taken failure lying down, and all that matters now is whether the replacement - Gran Torino - will fly.