source : the age
With department store David Jones collapsing into administration, Melbourne’s midtown is in a state of flux, but a soaring new office building will be home to two new Chris Lucas restaurants in a boost for the area.
The Commonwealth Bank has opened its Melbourne headquarters in the new building at 435 Bourke Street, one block west of the Bourke Street Mall, and the site is also home to law firm Baker McKenzie, corporate advisers KordaMentha and super funds UniSuper and Hostplus.
On a hard hat tour of the building where the finishing touches are being applied to his two new restaurants, Noema and Wishbone, Lucas and Cbus chief executive Chris Kakoufas enthuse about the potential for the area. Kakoufas says the new building and the nearby existing National Australia Bank headquarters together account for 15,000 office workers.
Kakoufas says construction on the new building was already under way before the COVID pandemic, but after the lockdown period ended, the property giant decided it needed a “reset” on the project and brought Lucas in.
“We wanted to make sure that midtown was really celebrating the diversity of tenants and users, and recognising that hospitality had to be part of actually drawing people back into that part of the CBD,” he says.
Lucas says he was reluctant at first and asked for the entire facade of the building to be changed so it looked more like a restaurant than an office building.
“I said it’s going to be challenging putting something in midtown, it’ll probably work at lunchtime, but I’m not so sure it’ll work at night because, is the activation going to be there?” he says.
But he was inspired by New York’s Midtown area, which has undergone a revival thanks to new developments.
“It was a part of New York that had been forgotten,” Lucas says. “Everyone talked about SoHo and Upper Manhattan, but not many people talked about Midtown.”
Lucas believes with the flagship Mecca in the Bourke Street Mall, the nearby area is gaining more nighttime amenity, so adding more restaurants to the mix “could be the final piece of the puzzle”. Noema and Wishbone are both set to open this month.
“I’ve never built two restaurants at the same time,” Lucas says. “I’ve never had twins, but apparently it’s like having twins. You love them dearly, both of them, but it’s hard work bringing them up.”
Lucas says the restaurants are distinctly different at different price points, with Noema a “main street” Greek restaurant and Wishbone a “laneway” Chinese restaurant.
Noema faces onto Bourke Street, with arched windows opening up the building’s terracotta facade.
Soft linen curtains frame the windows, and the two-level restaurant is decorated in earthy neutral tones with lots of wood and marble.
“We’re going to be open at night, we’re going to be open on weekends, so the last thing you want to feel when you’re coming into a restaurant is like you’re coming into a workplace,” Lucas says.
There are no Greek flags, urns or photographs of the Cycladic islands.
“I wanted it to be a Melbourne restaurant not some stereotypical sort of restaurant you might find in Mykonos,” Lucas says. “This is a beautiful new building, so I wanted it to be quite a sophisticated look. It’s about creating a beautiful, elegant restaurant that just happens to be serving Greek food.”
In the upstairs dining room, the open kitchen features a Josper charcoal oven and an open grill, where food will be cooked over dried vine leaves.
Each table will be set with olive oil, oregano and sea salt imported from Greece.
“The food is elegant but very produce-focused and very pared back,” Lucas says.
The lower level of the restaurant features a wine cellar, bar and private dining rooms seating up to 140 people.
“Opening a Greek restaurant in a city with 450,000 Greeks is a big challenge,” Lucas says. “People are stopping me in the street saying, ‘Would you like my mother’s spanakopita recipe?’ Thanks very much, but I have my own mother and she has her own spanakopita recipe.”
There’s less pressure on Lucas over the three-storey Wishbone, which is inspired by Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district.
Entry to Wishbone is from McKillop Street via a laneway that will house outdoor seating and a projector screening artworks and films on the adjacent brick wall.
“It’s very much around the Hong Kong eating house concept with beautiful dumplings, noodles, stir-fries, roast duck,” Lucas says.
A fire engine red perspex staircase connects the three storeys of the restaurant, which will be headed by Hong Kong-born chef Dan Chan.
The top level contains more private dining rooms while the lower level is more casual with a takeaway section where office workers can pre-order their lunches.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece says the new openings will be the anchor for “an incredible new precinct for our city”.
David Jones has not closed, but the luxury retailers within the department store have stripped their stock, leaving bare shelves at the retail outlet, which has anchored Bourke Street Mall for 44 years. But Reece says the retailer is still trading with remaining stock, and that if a rescue package can be developed, the store could continue to be a CBD drawcard.
“We have seen a strong increase in foot traffic and retail spending in the central city in recent times and this bodes well for the future of DJ’s presence in the city,” Reece says.
Lucas hopes the diners at the restaurants in nearby Hardware Lane can spill across Bourke Street into McKillop street.
“There’s a lot of office workers here, but the key is trying to get people back here at nighttime,” he says. “We still don’t know whether they will come, we won’t know until we open the doors.”
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