The long and the Shorty's of Milk and Honey's end

Milk and Honey in the city centre (in the corner of the old Centre Cinema building), is set for a new life as a pub.

Milk and Honey closed on December 29. It was owned by Mick Gubas and Miriana Cavic (who will also help out at Autolyse), who retain a small share but sold most of their interest to a group including Frank Condi (owner of the Edgar’s pub at the Ainslie shops), Pawl Cubbin and Ivan Pirjac (the trio that owns the Academy nightclub).

Despite the group’s interest in other restaurants and bars, Condi stressed the fact that the new venue, to be called Shorty’s, would have an identity all of its own.

The idea, he says, is a "quirky little" pub – "think Edgar’s but a little bit of quirkiness to it". It will have a food menu, including breakfast on the weekends.

The building is "an empty shell" at the moment, and the refit will evolve as work goes on, he says, including restoring features they had discovered, expanding into the old Centre Cinema foyer, and building a deck on the side that opens on to the laneway that leads into Garema Place.

He plans an opening in mid-March.