The Sicilian restaurant in Subiaco has reopened under new management and the new owners, Gallery Gold’s managing director Hamish Bohannan and his wife Julie, are promising to bring a fresh edge to the once-popular restaurant.
Ms Bohannan, who will look after the day-to-day running of the establishment, has almost eight years of hospitality experience from her time in the UK.
“I have been in Australian for nearly 14 years and I was working in mining, and then the Sicilian opportunity arose and was presented to us and we thought, why not?” she said.
“We know the Sicilian’s past, we know it’s a challenge and are fully aware of what we’ve taken on.
“But we want to make it a great eating establishment again with the true Italian cuisine.”
While the new Sicilian will aim to capture the family market, its floor plan, which can seat 300, will provide the Bohannans with the opportunity to target the corporate fine dining market.
“We want to cater for both and have two types of seatings. One for the families who have kids and want to eat and go home and relax, and the other for the people who want a night out,” Ms Bohannan said.
“The layout of the restaurant allows us to cater for that.
“We want to make it a place where people want to go again.
“We’ve set a few goals but there is still so much to do. We have come so far already in the last week and we will keep progressing.
“We want to make the atmosphere softer and warmer.”
The Bohannans finalised the deal for the Sicilian about two weeks ago for an undisclosed amount from MainVale Holdings’ Adam Broadley.
Mr Broadley, who also owns two Perth taverns and Hillarys Italian Café, bought the Sicilian about a year ago.
He told WA Business News in May 2004 that the Sicilian would trade with a similar menu to the Hillarys Italian Café.
At the time, Mr Broadley said the restaurant was not aiming to be silver service but rather wanted families to enjoy a night out without “paying through the nose”.
The Sicilian has had a difficult history in recent years.
The operating companies of the restaurant’s two proprietors prior to Mr Broadley went into administration.
