The social media whispers are true. Chef Shaun Quade of South Melbourne's boundary-pushing fine diner Lume is planning to open a restaurant in Los Angeles, hopefully before the end of the year. "We wanted a second venue and looked at Melbourne and Sydney," says Quade, "but the market in LA is suddenly exploding and our backer, Mr Harry, is all in."

It's now a matter of when, not if. Quade and partner Veronica Fil have been travelling between the United States and Melbourne for the past year, looking for a site to launch an as-yet-unnamed a la carte concept that will be more low key than Lume, though still the same sort of playful food Quade serves at the degustation-only South Melbourne restaurant.

Quade plans to showcase Australian wines and a few ingredients, but wants to draw on the produce native to California.

A head chef and other key personnel have already been negotiated, some of whom will be trained at Lume in Melbourne until the restaurant opens.

Quade will travel between the two restaurants while Lume's head chef, Eileen Horsnell, keeps the home fires burning (as she has increasingly been doing for a year).

LA is definitely hotting up, with April Bloomfield's Hearth and Hound and Will Guidara and Daniel Humm's NoMad invading from out of state, and new restaurants like Vespertine and Destroyer upping the city's boundary-pushing credentials. Here's hoping Quade and Co make the successful transition across the pond.