Long Chim Melbourne location: The Ivy, on Flinders Lane and Russell Street
The backers behind Aussie chef David Thompson’s rapidly growing Thai restaurant empire can’t keep this secret forever.
David Thompson has confirmed that his world-class Long Chim Thai restaurant will open soon in Melbourne — but where?
If my sources are correct, the answer is the glorious four-storey CBD building at the corner of Flinders Lane and Russell Street formerly known as The Ivy.
Long Chim started in the competitive culinary capital Singapore, where it attracted plaudits; it then opened in Perth in December, and quickly became the city’s hottest restaurant.
Thompson then announced plans for a homecoming to the city where his career started, Sydney, with a Long Chim in Angel Place, the opening of which is one of the city’s most anticipated this year.
The prospective Melbourne site is owned by three private investment companies associated with Perth property entrepreneur Adrian Fini.
Fini is responsible for the visionary restoration and development of Perth’s State Buildings, home to the city’s new Como Hotel and several restaurants, including Long Chim. It’s understood Fini is also a part of a complex matrix of companies, including Singapore-based Simon Dewhurst’s Aylmer Capital, backing the Long Chim restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Long Chim consortium is notoriously secretive about its intentions, although the location of the Sydney site was a poorly kept secret prior to its official announcement on May 2.
The smoking gun on the Melbourne site? The applicant for Long Chim’s Sydney liquor license, Tim Mack, is also a director of one of the companies that owns the Flinders Lane property.
Fini, however, declined to confirm that this was evidence of Long Chim’s Melbourne location, telling The Australian: “I am not aware of any site for Long Chim in Melbourne at present.”
But the expansion doesn’t stop there. We understand that beyond Melbourne, the group plans a Long Chim for Hong Kong in a massive redevelopment of the former colonial Central Police Station complex, in Central, where the restaurant would be one of at least 10.
Thompson did not respond to an invitation to comment.