A glitzy three-story Chinese restaurant is coming to central CBD and a chef with creds from one of Hong Kong’s most exciting restaurants, Yardbird, is heading up the kitchen. This is restaurateur Chris Lucas’s Wishbone, his latest project set to open this October.
Lucas is working closely with Hong Kong-born chef Dan Chan to develop the menu, plucking him from his current position at Tombo Den to steer the ship at the new diner. But what are we eating come spring? While the full menu is still under wraps, the good word is that Cantonese classics such as char siu pork will get a run, alongside wok-tossed black pepper beef, plenty of dumplings and a yum cha service on weekends.
“The development of the menu is very close to my heart and draws on my time in Hong Kong, as well as broader travel,” says Chan. “The food scene in Hong Kong has always been a brilliant, chaotic mix of influences – a bit eccentric, and a lot of fun. That’s what I want people to feel when they eat at Wishbone.”
The three-storey restaurant will open on Melbourne CBD’s McKillop Street and is just one part of the 435 Bourke Street precinct set to revitalise the city’s central dining and business district. And Lucas is excited to be part of it: “Midtown is and has always been an incredibly important part of Melbourne’s dining scene, and I think there’s a real opportunity as we reimagine what it can be today.”
Like Yakimono’s neon glow, Maison Bâtard’s unmissable opulence, and Society’s rather serious chandeliers, Wishbone will have its own showpiece: a red Perspex staircase encased in curved glass windows. Sarah Lucas, Chris Lucas’s wife and design partner, describes the interior as “cinematic, seductive and textured” – find out exactly what that means when doors open late this year.
The Lucas Collective is contracted to produce two venues all up for the $1 billion new skyscraper – the other restaurant, which has so far been described variously as Greek and Mediterranean – does not yet have a chef attached, or indeed a name or open date. Stay tuned.
Wishbone, 435 Bourke Street, Melbourne, @wishbonemelbourne