Peter Gunn To Close Ides in March

First things first: “I’m not fucking retiring,” says Peter Gunn. But he is closing his Collingwood restaurant Ides and adjoining bar March. 

Gunn, originally from Wellington, started Ides as a monthly dinner pop-up series in 2012 while working as a sous-chef at Attica. The restaurant opened in a permanent location in March 2016, and will host its final service on its 10th anniversary, Saturday March 14. 

“If I’m honest, this is not really about the restaurant. It’s about me, the closure. It’s where I’m at now with what I want to be cooking,” Gunn says. 

Ides opened with a six-course set menu. But Gunn has loosened things up over the past decade. The “Ides six”, as the team calls it, still exists, but there’s also an à la carte offering and a wildly popular steak night on Wednesdays. 

“Year on year the restaurant’s been different. We’ve always been a part of what makes Melbourne Melbourne, I feel, and that’s taken many different shapes.” But there’s still an Ides brand. “The nature of what Ides is now keeps me pretty bound to it.

“Our steak nights are just ruckus – it’s just vibey, and it’s just fun. It’s fast, it’s energetic, and I just love that shit right now. What I want to be cooking now, I believe, doesn’t really fit in this beautiful dining room, and it’s really demanding to keep [up the Ides] style.

“Ides, it’s slow, it’s chill, it’s got its own sort of energetic style in the form of the tasting menus. But I’m just done with it. I want the consistent vibe of casual food.”

Ending now means Gunn can close with no loose ends and no debt. “To wrap Ides up as Ides is now, without having to take it in a different direction, allows me to take care of my staff. Allows me to take care of the people that support the restaurant.”

Gunn, a father of two, says he won’t take a break when Ides closes. “But there’s a shift in what I’m going to be doing, and there’s going to be rules that allow me to spend more time and be present with my family in the evenings.” 

Until close, Ides will run steak nights on Tuesday and Wednesdays in the dining room and bar. Thursdays through Saturdays there’ll be a shared three-course menu available in the bar, and a three- or six-course menu in the dining room, with hits such as the Masterchef-famous Black Box dessert returning. “I’m fucking locked in until the end day.”

Ides and March will permanently close after service on Saturday March 14.

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