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Update September 15:
Great news, you guys! Yesterday, 47 creditors voted unanimously to save the iconic, very late-night Sydney institution, Golden Century. In a $4.5 million agreement to clear the Sussex Street restaurant's debt, the creditors voted for the deed of company arrangement (DOCA) after GC's entered administration last month due to a tricky lease and extended lockdowns. It is understood that a buyer purchasing $1.5 million worth of the restaurant's impressive wine selection will partially fund the the deal. As it turns out a few pipis and XO sauce goes a long way to grease palms and we're all very, very glad to know it. It is not known yet when Golden Century will re-open for business as usual but in the meantime, you can get your fix delivered straight to your door.
Beloved Sydney dining institution Golden Century has entered administration, according to an ASIC report lodged earlier this week. Under section 436A, an administrator has been appointed to the company as it has become insolvent.
Sydney is a notoriously hard city to stay afloat in but some it seems have that special something that keeps them trucking for generations. Golden Century was just that. For over 30 years, Linda and Eric Wong along with their son Billy have been keeping late-night revellers fed and watered in style. It's impossible to say exactly what it is about GC that gave it such staying power; maybe it's the walls of live seafood awaiting the wok, or the fact that diners are welcome to stumble in well past their bedtimes, or perhaps it was the whispers of a secret dining room where ladies of leisure call the shots? We suspect it has something to do with the fried bread and extra XO sauce though.
Like moths to the flame, people flocked here. Since 1989, diners of every sort flooded the tank-lined eating hall of Sussex Street's Golden Century. Long hailed as the late-night den of delicious debauchery, turning tables until the wee hours to tend to drunken revellers, post-shift hospitality workers and everyone in between. It seems just about everyone in Sydney has at least one story that either begins or ends at GC, whether that be celebrating a birthday by picking out your very own lobster, or using a corkscrew to jimmy open a toilet cubicle door to rescue an inebriated kitchen co-worker celebrating his last shift (true story). We can only hope those stories will echo through the halls of time.
It is not clear yet whether the closing of the CBD flagship heralds the end for the restaurant's satellite eateries, XOPP, The Century and Wine Bank (3F), but in any case, the OG and MVP will be sorely missed. Sydney will be lesser for the loss.