Andrew McConnell farewells Builders Arms to open Chinese restaurant Ricky & Pinky

Zeitgiest-surfing Melbourne restaurateur Andrew McConnell has seen the future and the future is ... Chinese.

In August he'll be smashing down walls at his Fitzroy bistro the Builders Arms and the rear contemporary dining room Moon Under Water, and creating Ricky & Pinky, a fun but not kitsch Chinese restaurant inside the 1853 hotel.

What won't change is the front bar. "That's sacred," says McConnell.

But beyond the front bar's tiled walls will be one space, with an open kitchen at the rear giving energy back to the room, round tables with lazy susans and seating for 130, and fish tanks stocked with clams for McConnell's favourite: clams with XO sauce. "People will be able to roll their sleeves up and have a bit of a party."

Hong Kong chef Archan Chan will head the Ricky & Pinky kitchen, working with McConnell on a combination of Canto classics such as drunken chicken and dry-aged roasted duck, and more creative modern dishes.

Chan has spent plenty of time with the McConnell stable, at Cutler & Co, Golden Fields and Supernormal. For the past year, she's been at Sydney's Moon Park, but with its closure expected in September, McConnell was only too happy to lure her south again.

"I had a shortlist of one person for the job," he says. "She's a rare talent."

The impetus for the change was the need to renovate the Gertrude Street hotel, which McConnell took over in 2012.

Realising that the dining landscape had changed and more restaurants and pubs had swung their focus to good steaks and bistro dishes, the time seemed right to try something entirely new, says McConnell, who lived in Hong Kong and Shanghai for five years. Ricky & Pinky is named after the legendary but now-closed Hong Kong tattoo parlour.

Work will begin in July and Moon Under Water and the bistro will close for two weeks in August for the structural work.

Ricky & Pinky, at 211 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, is due to open on August 22.