Is Smith Street losing its hipster restaurant cool?

The recent arrival in Smith Street of both a large Coles supermarket and a Subway franchise plus the demise/departure of some small, chef-run dining ventures has raised speculation that the hipster heartland and dining hot spot has lost its mojo. Smith Street is doomed apparently. Or at least losing its cool, which in some circles might be considered worse.

The "hot spot to has-been" tale is not unknown in Melbourne shopping strips. Think Lygon, Brunswick, Acland, Fitzroy and Chapel.

Cheap rents attract experimental, inventive businesses, which attract attention and hot spot declarations. Everybody wants in, landlords jack up the rent, leaving only those able to afford it, often the same franchises and supermarkets seen everywhere else. Street loses mojo, a victim of its own success.

But is this being repeated on Smith Street?

Restaurateur David Mackintosh has leased a space on the street for three years that's housed modern Chinese joint Lee Ho Fook (now in the CBD), wine-focused pop-up Semi Permanent and soon IDES, an edgy degustation-only restaurant helmed by former Attica chef Peter Gunn that's due to open in March.

Mackintosh is not too worried about the arrival of Coles ("it's part of a development that brings more people into the neighbourhood") and believes there is "not any one idea of Smith Street but its success has changed what those ideas are".

"There is a creative community here still," he says. "But there's more financial pressure now and so some find that it's not the be all and end all they hoped it was. I still believe in Smith Street but it would be sad if it was no longer able to house the dynamic ideas that made it the new hot food area in the first place."

Adam Liston, who is closing his modern Asian restaurant/bar Northern Light in March, says that he was "a bit naive" when taking on his Smith Street business.

"The reason that I moved here was that is was the coolest spot at the time," he says.

"There were places like Saint Crispin, Huxtable, Easy Tiger and Lee Ho Fook here and it was being talked up as the food mecca for Melbourne.

"I didn't think about opening anywhere else. It worked for about a year but many of the people coming here now aren't here to dine. They want to go to the bars and have a quick bite to eat at places like Biggie Smalls [Shane Delia's new kebab joint] or Huxtaburger."

Interestingly, the crowd behind Huxtaburger are part of the closures too, pulling the pin on Huxtable, their acclaimed flagship Smith Street restaurant that predated the burger chain. So does this point to rot or change?

Chief food critic for The Age, Gemima Cody, believes that "any good business still has the potential to do well on Smith Street".

"If you look at places like Saint Crispin and Panama Dining Room, it shows that people are willing to travel to eat on Smith Street, so you're not just relying on the local crowd to keep your business running," she says.

"And that's what will save the street – keeping the unique interesting businesses in order to draw in people from beyond the local bubble."

The imminent openings of Ides and a new boulangerie from Frenchman Gontran Cherrier seem to show that there's life in the street yet, despite the looming presence of Coles.

Perhaps, as Mackintosh says, "it's not losing its mojo, just changing it".