Mark Best shuts Sydney CBD restaurant Pei Modern

Mark Best's Pei Modern restaurant in Sydney's CBD has shut. It follows the mid-2016 closure of the chef's Surry Hills fine diner, Marque. With Best involved with a new restaurant aboard the recently launched Genting Dream cruise ship, fans of the highly toqued chef might feel his kitchen talents are shifting offshore.

But a spokeswoman at Four Seasons Hotel, where Pei Modern has traded since October 2014, says a yet-to-be-named restaurant will open in its place in April, with Best at the helm. "He'll be executive chef … with Marque restaurant no longer he has more time. He'll be here on the pans."

Details of the new direction are yet to be unveiled. A source close to Best is tipping a simple bistro menu, although the hotel spokeswoman hinted the new restaurant "might bring back a bit of five-star elegance".

Best is no longer involved with Pei Modern in Melbourne, which itself is changing direction.

The restaurant, in the forecourt of the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, closed for renovation last year.

It will reopen in June as a warm, luxurious late-night supper club, says owner David Mackintosh.

He's teamed up with Joe Jones of Romeo Lane on the yet-to-be-named club, which will draw inspiration from places like Restaurant Hubert in Sydney, J Sheekey in London and New York's legendary 1930s Stork Club (now defunct), serving excellent but uncomplicated food, champagne and cocktails.

Forget polished concrete and blond wood. Instead, expect banquettes, booths and carpet, and small lights with dimmers on every table.

And they haven't ruled out the possibility of live jazz.