Little Hunter goes out with a bang

CBD restaurant Little Hunter, the venue touted as ''the most significant restaurant opening in Melbourne in years'' by its PR machine when it opened in February, closed on October 22 with the company that owned it, Little Hunter Pty Ltd, going into liquidation. Little Hunter Pty Ltd has a number of owners, one being TV chef and health guru Pete Evans, who was there in February to launch the venue.

A spokesperson for Little Hunter Pty Ltd says, ''There were circumstances at play beyond our control and this impacted on the business directly. In the best interests of the business we are taking a hiatus from our day-to-day operation and we are focusing on events to utilise the space until we reopen in the new year.''

The final days of operation were chaos. A Little Hunter restaurant manager says: ''Thursday [October 17] the kitchen team resigned in its entirety; Friday morning the directors announced a new kitchen team for Friday night service and 45 minutes into the service they had produced only four entrees out of 11 ordered and they were disastrous.''

Anyone who had booked for Saturday night was called and bookings were cancelled, the entire floor staff resigned and the doors were shut for good by Tuesday morning.

Little Hunter Pty Ltd owes more than 100 creditors a total of $769,859.38. The highest debt is to the ATO for $122,152.00. Some of the co-owners of Little Hunter were also co-owners of another CBD restaurant, Senoritas in Meyers Place. Senorita Trading Pty Ltd was put into administration on Friday, September 27, by company director Linda Temani with debts to the ATO in excess of $200,000.

Ms Temani could not contacted as Espresso went to print.