Bentley boys drive into town

Sydney's much-admired Bentley will relocate to the CBD's Radisson Hotel.

The Bentley Bar, in Surry Hills, Sydney, will soon have new tenants, Chui Lee Luk and Phillip Haw of Claude's.

Pioneers of the hyper-modern, Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt have leased a space formerly known as Bistro Fax; for the third time, Melbourne designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb will steer interiors. "It's larger, has a private dining room and a bigger bar," says Savage, "but we are just transplanting the Bentley concept." It's final curtain at the Surry Hills site on August 10, with new tenants Chui Lee Luk and Phillip Haw of Claude's moving in right away to start building Chow Eating House. Lee Luk and Haw have commissioned Giant to remodel the space; the menu is to be snack-friendly, focusing on Chinese, Taiwanese and Malaysian street food. Savage and Hildebrandt will concentrate on their Potts Point food and wine bar, Monopole, while a new restaurant is developed. Expect an early December launch.

Head chef Brent Savage will re-create the Bentley Bar concept at the Radisson Hotel, in the CBD.

THE heat is on to whittle down a short list of hundreds to determine this year's Hot 50 Restaurants for The Weekend Australian Magazine (see last year's Hot50 here). It's no easy task. What will be this year's Hottest Restaurant? Who will be the Hottest Chef? Help us. We need as much input as we can get before our publication date of August 24. Send your suggestions to the email below or make them on Twitter with the hash-tag #Hot50Restaurants. Speculate to your heart's content! One thing is certain: we haven't locked the file yet.

MELBOURNE'S Trocadero, Frank Van Haandel's restaurant and wine bar at the Arts Centre, hasn't worked and radical surgery is imminent. "I can't comment at the moment," says Van Haandel, a man whose touch for the hospitality scene has hitherto had a Midas quality, "but we are certainly making changes. There's a good story coming."

WHEN you're on to a good thing (1): Tony Nicolini, the Melbourne pizzaiolo turned entrepreneur behind the D.O.C. restaurants, fired up the ovens at his latest instant hit last week. D.O.C. Albert Park is what Nicolini calls "a more polished extension to our brand with greater attention to the finer details." His original idea for a pizza/mozzarella bar focusing on D.O.C. (appellation-guaranteed) Italian foodstuffs has been a hit since the get-go, seven years ago in Carlton. D.O.C. Mornington found a ready market bayside and now he and his partners have replicated the formula in the very building where Nicolini started as a waiter (Vic Ave) in the 1980s. This time, they own the building.

WHEN you're on to a good thing (2): Matteo Bruno, producer of the Ask the Butcher pay-TV series and owner of The Meatball & Wine Bar (Melbourne CBD and Richmond), is the latest southerner sniffing around Sydney. Bruno says he will be opening in Sydney this year with a few sites "on offer", but he is on the hunt for premises in Surry Hills in particular. The concept has found rapid favour in Melbourne and Bruno says Perth, his home town, and Brisbane are very likely subsequent destinations. Melbourne will get a third in Prahran or Windsor.

PASI Petanen, the chef who stood beside Mark Best at Marque for years, is taking over Sydney's Darlinghurst Cafe Pacifico as "a one-year pop up". The Finn native will rebrand as Cafe Paci and do set-menu "good, affordable" dinners five nights. "It's a one-year thing," he says . "If you go broke, you don't go too broke. I come, cook, and then go. Simple." He opens August 5.

STEPHEN Bourke, the genial Irishman and loyal lieutenant to chef Paul Wilson at Melbourne Pub Group, will step up to the executive chef position. Wilson resigned last week after four years steering the multi-venue operation's food. "They've been a fantastic team, the pair of them," said MPG managing director Tom Walker. "I think Stephen deserves the opportunity to manage the transition and we'll review it down the track."

ROTTNEST Scallops last night won the country's most prestigious award for food producers. Producer of the Year at the Delicious Produce Awards went to the ultra-short-season bivalves harvested and marketed by One Sea out of Fremantle. Other winners included Flinders Island Lamb, Myrtleford Butter and Otways Shiitake Mushrooms.

Source: The Australian, 16 July 2013