Melbourne's Restaurant Shik has closed

Restaurant Shik, the first hospitality venture for Peter "Kimchi Pete" Jo, has closed. His landlord repossessed the Niagara Lane premises on April 5.

Despite Jo being an untrained chef and first-time business owner, Restaurant Shik opened to widespread critical acclaim for its Korean dishes, with a heavy focus on unusual ferments. It just didn't translate into bums on seats.

Jo is pragmatic about the closure and believes his main mistake was that he was initially unable to explain his food and so it "clashed with a lot of people's preconceptions of what Korean was".

Before opening, Jo spoke broadly about his love of Korean food history, and his plans to have a focus on preservation techniques, but he was better able to articulate what the CBD restaurant would not going to be, than what it was.

Not so now. "My style is old-world Korean. Most of the foods that people know from Korea came about after the war. I love the food of Korea pre-war, when it was poor, when it was about survival. That's why I had the most fun on the menu with the pickles. One of my favourite things was getting greens from farmers that would usually go to waste. That's what my food is about."

Jo is still keen to impress this, as he plans to keep the brand alive. "I have clarity now, so this is the beginning," says Jo.

Over the coming months, Jo plans to work to pay outstanding debts and is already seeking venues to hold Shik pop-ups.