Pop-up restaurant precinct to open in Melbourne's CBD

Chris Lucas and Salvatore Malatesta are among the names confirmed for a new city pop-up development due open in early May.

The north-west corner of Collins and Exhibition streets, owned by Queensland Investment Corporation, is earmarked for a significant redevelopment in 12 to 18 months. Ahead of the redevelopment, QIC will bring together some of the city’s biggest hospitality names at a temporary food and wine hub housed in customised shipping containers.

Chris Lucas, of Chin Chin, Baby and Richmond’s yet-to-open Korean barbecue house Kong, will open a scaled-down version of Kong.

Malatesta, who owns the St Ali cafes in South Melbourne and Brunswick, has confirmed his involvement but wouldn’t elaborate on details.

The pop-up will be open daily for lunch and dinner from early May.

The development planned for the site is a 36-storey office tower that will fill the space at 80 Collins Street between Nauru House.

Correction: The original version of this story stated that the development was on the south-west corner of Collins and Exhibition streets. This was incorrect and has been changed to the north-west corner.