Just Open: IDES Melbourne, Collingwood

Chef Peter Gunn is the actual gun who has kept the city in a fizz for the past two years with his roving pop-up outfit, IDES.

Wait lists for the monthly pop-up dinners, held mostly at Persillade, but sometimes in warehouses, trams and once for Good Food in a cinema, were the envy of many. Now, IDES the project is IDES the restaurant, opening Wednesday, March 16 at the old Lee Ho Fook site on Smith Street.

There are things to know about Gunn – he'd prefer it if his long reign as sous chef at Attica wasn't at the top of the pile, despite his deep respect for Ben Shewry and the team.

More important is probably his stable of friends. Grant Cheyne, for example, the design don responsible for Rockpool Sydney who has overseen the site conversion into a muted space in powdery greys. It's practically a recording studio with better light, buckshot felt panels sending beams on to a lowered faux marble bar that now serves as a plating and pouring station, though there are two seats at the end for walk-ins.

There's also sommelier Raffaele Mastrovincenzo (ex-Kappo) on drinks, pouring Georgian, French and Friuli wines alongside an array of $60 bottles from interesting producers on home turf. There's a tight "other" category too: one sake, umeshu and sherry, local spirits, a mescal and Caol Ila whisky.

On plate, it's a set six-course deal for $110 and you can expect a gradual rotation. Dishes will evolve off the menu rather than be flicked on a timeline. It might be bread and peanut-infused butter; miso-marinated lamb ribs paired with celery and rhubarb curls flash-roasted in coconut oil and, given Gunn believes dessert should actually be sweet, something closer to golden pineapple balls cooked in maple syrup with ginger ice-cream than something hewn from a carrot.

Either way, we've learnt to expect big flavour country from the chef whose focus is more on extracting excellence from ordinary foods (a burnt fennel broth was a previous highlight) rather than working with native ingredients of now.

Dietaries are catered for and starting April, they'll bring the blinds down to do pop-ups – totally new concepts – in their own space (One Day Sundays).

Open Wed-Sun 6pm-late.

92 Smith Street, Collingwood, 03 9939 9542, idesmelbourne.com.au