Jon Adgemis’s Public Hospitality has had an eventful 2024. April brought a failed $500 million refinancing attempt, May the exit of executive chef Clayton Wells, and July a split with the Maybe Group, which meant CBD cocktail bar Maybe Sammy and Oxford Street’s El Primo Sanchez leaving the Public stable.

Now voluntary administrators have been appointed to five Public-owned pubs: The Strand Hotel, Camelia Grove, The Norfolk (where Ricos Tacos lives), Oxford House and the currently closed Exchange Hotel in Darlinghurst.

In a statement, FTI Consulting noted its team was working with the current management and in-venue teams to continue trading as usual while a “sale of business campaign” is organised.

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The planned sales comes after Muzinich & Co, a New York-based private credit investor, pulled the plug on a refinancing deal this week, as reported by the Australian Financial Review yesterday. Muzinich reportedly holds over $100 million of Public’s debt, for the five properties and the overarching company.

“Look, I just try and stay out of it, cook and do my job,” Ricos Tacos founder Toby Wilson tells Broadsheet. “It’s a complicated situation that’s hard for everyone that works here to fully understand sometimes, myself included. At the end of the day, we’re still just getting paid to do what we do, and we’ll just carry on … it’s been a fucking weird year.”

Wilson moved his adored Chippendale taqueria to Public’s revamped Norfolk Hotel in September 2023. “With the resources and space we have, we can really ramp up the experience,” Wilson told Broadsheet at the time. The move supersized the Ricos space, added a Maybe Sammy cocktail edge and upstairs sports bar Club Ricos.

“Norfolk has now transitioned to work under FTI, the consulting company. [The kitchen and floor team] work for them ... we continue to be the operators,” he says. “The offering continues under the support of the new team – we just want to keep doing what we do.”

In 2022, Public gave The Strand in Darlinghurst a facelift – freshening its hotel rooms and dining room, and adding a rooftop bar – similar to its Oxford House revamp that same year. Alexandria’s Camelia Grove transformed into a trattoria in early 2023.

Public’s cracks started showing in May last year, when the Australian Financial Review published an explosive article detailing the extent of Public’s debt. It came just a few months after Public acquired the group behind Maybe Sammy, Sydney’s internationally renowned cocktail bar.

In July, the same outlet suggested Adgemis may no longer have an operational role in the business, instead giving his attention to “developing Public Hospitality’s pubs”. Noah’s Backpackers, which Public purchased for $68 million in 2022, is still being renovated.

What to make of the future of the five properties at risk? “We expect a lot of interest in these venues and will work closely with venue management to achieve a successful outcome,” FTI receiver Vaughan Strawbridge said in a statement.

Broadsheet reached out to Public regarding the loss of the five pubs but did not hear back by the time of publication.