Fine dining institution Friends Restaurant has been put up for sale by owners Clyde and Lesley Bevan who have run the business for over a quarter of a century in Perth’s CBD.
Clyde Bevan, who has been the face of the restaurant alongside his wife Lesley Bevan since it first opened in 1997, confirmed with Business News that the Perth mainstay was for sale.
“I’m 68, it’s time to not have to run upstairs and carry plates,” Mr Bevan said.
“There’s going to be a hole in the heart there for a little while.”
The husband-and-wife duo opened their first restaurant, Dear Friends, in Swan Valley in 1990 before opening sister restaurant, Friends in 1997.
Friends went on to win multiple national awards for its food and wine offerings, including Trip Advisor Australia's Best Fine Dining Restaurant twice, Restaurant & Catering Industry Association of Australia's Best Restaurant with Entertainment three times, Tucker Seabrook's Best Wine List in Australia and a Gold Plate Award for Best Fine Dining Restaurant.
It moved from its locale at the front of the Hyatt overlooking the Swan River to Cloisters on St Georges Terrace over two years ago.
By Mr Bevan’s accounts, despite the pandemic’s toll on the hospitality industry, the pair were exiting the business on a high.
“This is the best we’ve ever traded in our lives of hospitality,” he said.
“We’re 40 per cent up on where we were at the Hyatt.”
He said there had been several potential buyers interested in the restaurant, who also seemingly see the value in keeping Mr and Mrs Lesley front-of-house and the business’ long-term staff.
“There has been potential buyers who want us to do a couple of days a week and we're quite happy to do something like that, but at a much lesser level of what we're doing now,” Mr Bevan said.
“But I’d be happy to come in and sell some wine and maybe do some consultancy to them.”
Clyde and Lesley Bevan. Photo: Supplied
Included in the sale is the restaurant’s extensive wine cellar, which Mr Bevan estimates to be worth some $1.5 million based on restaurant prices.
He said the wines were priced reasonably compared to over east or internationally.
“Part of why we have done well is people are coming and in buying really good wines,” he explained.
Speaking further to the restaurant’s success over the years, Mr Bevan spoke highly of the contribution of his staff.
“We’ve got fantastic staff,” he said.
“We’ve been going for over 25 years as Friends and we’ve won seven national awards, but it really is the staff that make it work.
“You're only as good as your last service, and we’ve always been very conscious of that.”
He said the business had one staff member who had been with Friends for 12 years, another who had worked there for eight years and two employees who had been there for five years.
Asked what he plans to do next, Mr Bevan, who is also a City of Perth Councillor, plans to continue his work with the city and spend more time with his three grandchildren.
