“At $85, his porcini and fresh truffle pizza is probably Sydney’s most expensive, but even the value end of John Lanzafame’s menu isn’t doing enough business for him to stay open in Woolloomooloo,” according to the Great Lakes Advocate.

“He will close his well reviewed but short-lived Lanzafame restaurant, on the lower slopes of Crown Street, when its lease runs out at the end of the year.

Lanzafame was no rookie when he opened in 2010.

He’d had a successful restaurant in Haberfield, won awards working for the Hugo’s group and had even penned a book about pizza.

The chef doesn’t understand the present flood of high-profile operators looking to open in East Sydney and Woolloomooloo: ”Maybe they know something I don’t; these are the hardest streets ever.”

He wants to reopen in the inner west.”