Shannon Bennett’s Iki-Jime a covid casualty but Scott Pickett throws lifeline
Chef-restaurateur Scott Pickett is defying coronavirus-caused gloom and taking over the site of another COVID casualty, Shannon Bennett’s fancy fish restaurant Iki-Jime. Take a look.
Lifestyle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
They say never waste a good crisis.
Chef-restaurateur Scott Pickett is bucking COVID-caused CBD gloom by signing the lease for the site that once housed Shannon Bennett’s Vue de monde and Bistro Vue restaurants.
Pickett said the site at 430 Lt Collins St, which was most recently Bennett’s fancy fish restaurant Iki-Jime, had a wonderful history he wanted to preserve. Iki-Jime closed its doors in March and has not reopened since.
“I’ve got to believe in the other side (of COVID), I’ve got to believe in my team, the industry. This is something we were working on pre-Covid, this opportunity, so I decided to keep going ahead and hopefully it’s a wonderful restaurant on a wonderful site,” he said.
Pickett will open Pickett’s Deli, along with a new restaurant concept with a “classic French feel”.
“My favourite part of the restaurant’s history is Bistro (Vue), so we’ll probably go for something down those lines. Classic French. Really accessible, steeped in classic French. Simple tasty food.”
Pickett’s Deli will open later in the year, with the restaurant scheduled to open in early 2021.
In a vote of confidence in Melbourne’s CBD, Pickett has also bought the Longrain and Longsong restaurants from hospitality veterans John and Lisa Van Haandel, and was ready to reopen them as the second lockdown was announced.
“These are tough times for the industry, there’s no doubt about that. I need to think long term and look past the next three weeks, to the next three months, and six months, and 12 months and two years and five years and how I can help drive the industry forward. Melbourne is such a great city, the people will continue to support us once we’re through this tough time.”
Vue Group chief operating officer Nick Grant said closing Iki-Jime would enable the group to focus on its main restaurant and that all team members had been retained within the group.
“We look forward to passing the venue on to Scott Pickett and wish him all the best,” he said.
Longrain and Longsong and the new CBD site adds to Pickett’s growing restaurant empire that includes Estelle in Northcote, Matilda 159 in South Yarra and Pastore at the Chadstone Hotel.
Pickett said he was confident Melbourne would rebound from the COVID-19 crisis.
“There needs to be some positives that come out of COVID, some feel-good stories. I’m a risk taker and I’ll put everything on the line every time if I have to and happy to do that because I believe in myself and the team around me and the product,” he said.
“It’s been tough, had some dark days for sure. But we’ll come through this as a community and as state and as a food city. And then hopefully in six, 12, 18 months we’re back to some kind of normal when everything’s rocking again. That’s my dream. And if not, it could be big trouble for me.”