Time has been called on the award-winning Sydney pop-up restaurant that broke ranks in its genre by snaring chef's hats and hanging around longer than the smell of truffle oil. Darlinghurst's Cafe Paci will shut its doors on December 23 after a two-year run. If its relative longevity set the pace for short-run restaurants, the recent anointing of owner-chef Pasi Petanen as The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Chef of the Year etched it deeper on the city's culinary map.

"We could have stayed on, but it's too big for us. I want to find something with about 50 seats," Petanen told Good Food. The Finnish chef, who sharpened his skills locally at Marque before striking out on his own, is also considering a bakery to open alongside the soon to be relocated restaurant. "Sydney has so much sourdough, it's time for rye," he says. "We might do one or the other [bakery or restaurant] or both together. I don't have a preference on location, but I'd like to open next spring. We achieved more than we thought we could with this space, but it's time to move on."

The nomadic lifestyle, living between lease periods, has also worn thin. "I want to put down roots," Petanen adds.