Rising talent gets hands on Civic kitchen

What do you get when you mix an iconic city gastropub, a rising suburban food star and the talents of former Balzac chef Matt Kemp? A cocktail for success that could see the Civic Hotel's name back up in food lights by midyear.

The Civic, on the corner of Pitt and Goulburn streets, has a rich culinary history; Peter Conistis was the last big-name food tenant there.

Now Tona Inthavong, the owner of Fairfield's Lao and Thai restaurant Green Peppercorn and James' Bistro, is Civic-bound.

''We'll open two new restaurants in June: a Green Peppercorn will go in upstairs, where we'll transform the outdoor area into something like the streets of Thailand, and James' Bistro will open on the ground floor,'' he says.

With Green Peppercorn catching the eye of SMH Good Food Guide reviewers, the Fairfield restaurant will join the city trek started by Red Lantern's Luke Nguyen. Inthavong was drawn to the Civic's location, between World Square and Sydney's Thainatown.

''Matt Kemp will be helping us out with an overhaul of the James' Bistro menus at Fairfield and the city. We'd love him even more involved in the kitchen. We're pushing, but don't know if he's up for [it].''