The men from Uncle

ONE of Melbourne's more charming front-of-house guys, Glaswegian Rene Spence, has partnered with Vietnam-born chef Dai Duong to open a modern Vietnamese restaurant in St Kilda.

Uncle will launch in October in Carlisle Street. "Uncle is a term of respect in several cultures," says Spence, "including Vietnamese." Duong is a former head chef at Pelican and sous chef to Geoff Lindsay at Elwood mod-Viet Dandelion. Spence was on the floor at Pelican, the Smith and, until recently, managing B'Stilla. Their premises includes space for a 30-seat bar and, upstairs, seating for 120, including a rooftop terrace. Design firm Foolscap, which did Perth's superb-looking Gordon Street Garage and Melbourne CBD cafe du jour Patricia, is on the case. "I've been in this game half my life now," says Spence, 34. "This is what you dream of, right?" We're almost as excited.

Scotsman Rene Spence, who has partnered with Vietnam-born chef Dai Duong to open Uncle, a modern Vietnamese restaurant in St Kilda.

SYDNEY: Claude's, a Sydney fine dining institution, will close in September. Proprietor-chef Chui Lee Luk opens Chow in the old Bentley site, Surry Hills, around the same time.

Claude's, a Sydney dining institution, will close in September.

NATIONWIDE: Speculation is starting to increase about this year's Hot 50 Restaurants, which will be announced in The Weekend Australian Magazine on August 24. Add your own tips on Twitter with the hashtag #hot50restaurants. (Read last year's Hot 50 here.)

HOBART: Very quietly, the partners behind Hobart's Garagistes and sibling bar Sidecar have put both businesses on the market. Running the state's hottest restaurant has been gruelling on the partnership. Says chef-proprietor Luke Burgess: "We've decided there are other things we want to do." The lease has 18 months to go. "We'll wait and see what happens. I may move back to Sydney, I may stay in Hobart."

TASMANIA: More movement in Tassie ... Is David Moyle, one of the finest chefs to adopt the state in recent years, staying down south? It appears so. Having tried and failed to secure a venture on the mainland for the past 18 months, it's understood he will set up a restaurant within a luxury small hotel to be created by Bruce Neill. Moyle already works for Neill at Peppermint Bay hotel. We understand PB will close its Stackings restaurant, expand its bistro offering and send Moyle to Macquarie Street to create a restaurant as well as a trattoria.

MELBOURNE: Restaurant entrepreneur Paul Mathis appears to be substantially restructuring his affairs. Hitherto, companies he is associated with held the liquor licences of four Melbourne restaurants: Bangpop, Akachochin, Henry and the Fox, and Firechief. All four restaurants have recently transferred liquor licences. Firechief's licence has transferred from a company Mathis was a co-director of to one that appears to be solely controlled by Mathis and his wife, while the other three licences have been transferred from companies Mathis is a co-director of to a number of companies of which he is not. In all three restaurants' cases, the liquor licences have been transferred to companies of which Melbourne restaurant operator Eddie Muto (Bohemian, Left Bank, Meat Market, Terra Rossa) is a co-director. Bohemian and Meat Market are neighbours of Akachochin and Bangpop (nee Sharing House) at Melbourne's South Wharf precinct. Muto could not be reached for comment. Mathis's co-director in companies that formerly held the licences on the four restaurants in question, entrepreneur Frank De Rango, would not return The Australian's calls. Mathis said partnership shuffles were behind the transfers, but it was "not true, not accurate" he was leaving the restaurants in question. "Maybe a possibility but at the moment nothing has been signed, no contracts ... just speculation."

MELBOURNE: After 16 months, Will Cowan Lunn has given notice at Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne, where he has been head chef since Paul Easson left. Stepping up is Warrnambool-raised Zac Nicholson. Cowan Lunn is moving to the Blue Mountains region.

Source: The Australian, 30 July 2013