Chris Lucas announces new restaurant opening

The Lucas Group has this week announced they will be adding another restaurant to their portfolio later this year.

Located within the prestigious retail district of 80 Collins Street in Melbourne, Yakimono – meaning grill (‘yaki’) everything (‘mono’) – will be a collaboration between Lucas Group founder and CEO Chris Lucas and Chef Martin Benn, who formerly ran Sydney’s internationally renowned Sepia.

It will sit next to Society, the two-level restaurant behemoth helmed by Lucas, Benn and Vicki Wild, which is slated to open mid-2021.

At this stage, the only hints of what to expect from the food at Yakimono come from the name. The Japanese-style grill menu will represent Lucas and Benn’s shared love of Japan, and will deliver a contemporary twist to age-old methods of cooking over fire and charcoal.

The fit-out, too, will balance old and new styles styles of Japanese aesthetic. The kitchen will sit at the heart of the two-level all-day eatery, with bar seating located around the perimeter so that diners can watch as the chefs prepare their food – a common element of restaurant design in Japan.

Yakimono is set to open in late 2021. It will join the diverse portfolio of Lucas Group restaurants, which currently includes Baby, GoGo Bar, Kong, Hawker Hall, Kisume and Chin Chin (in both Sydney and Melbourne).