A NEW restaurant is set to open in March in one of the iconic buildings on View Point in Bendigo.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Alium Dining will go into the space left by Vault Eatery when it closed earlier in the month.
Owner Mark Brennan said he had been looking for a restaurant opportunity and plans to enhance the spoace in the Colonial Mutual Life Building.
"This space is such a beautiful building and so perfectly located in centre of Bendigo with iconic fountain out the front," he said. "I have been coming here for a number of years and have loved the interior of this room.
"We have plans to enhance and improve the look. There is a fair bit of work to do (but) I think early March is when we're looking (to open)."
Mr Brennan said he is aiming to move away from a cafe-style eatery a more relaxed restaurant that encourages diners to try new things.
"It has been a number of things over the years so we hope to shift it significantly away from where it is at the moment," he said. "It morphed itself into more of a cafe scene and we're talking about putting back to that beautiful restaurant experience at the upper end of relaxed dining."
"The announcement of Bendigo as a city of gastronomy was another prompt for me. One of things about Bendigo and gastronomy is it is easy to attract people but you need to make sure you send people away with great experience and I think can contribute to that."
RELATED: Dan and his desserts on Zumbo show
He has teamed up with local chef is Jay Harkness, who has worked at Rocks on Rosalind and The Woodhouse, and dessert chef Daniel Treacy who competed on cooking show Zumbo's Just Desserts.
"I met these two interesting and exciting chefs and we stated working together and looking for restaurant opportunities," he said. "This space was available and we thought it was a beautiful opportunity."
Mr Brennan is a director at Thales and has worked in Bendigo for a number of years but he has no plans to leave his current job.
He also aims to have an extensive focus on transparency and fairness at his new restaurant, striving to be an employer of choice in an industry that is often scrutinised.