Can Sydney's original modern Asian restaurant break the string of departures at the old Salt restaurant site in Darlinghurst? After 18 years in Victoria Street, Fu Manchu will relocate next month to Salt's former digs at 229 Darlinghurst Road, a site with a reputation for swallowing restaurants. Kirketon Dining Room & Bar fell there, as did Kells Kitchen. In February, Art Lounge joined the list. Fu Manchu owner Annie Lee says designer Brian Kiernan will design the new digs. She used him 18 years ago to fashion the then revolutionary Fu Manchu interior, complete with its signature red padded stools. "I'm rather sentimental but also super excited," she says of her former home. ''Marriage proposals, births and deaths have all been experienced in those old walls.'' The new Fu and its larger kitchen will allow Lee to expand the restaurant's repertoire. The Malaysian mixed plate, nasi campur, will be on the menu, along with home-style congee and pork rib herbal soup.

All of the blue ducks aligned

It's said you haven't really made it until you have your own stalker or a ski lodge. The team at Bronte's Three Blue Ducks will soon tick one of those boxes, opening a restaurant this winter in the Victorian ski resort of Falls Creek. With former Tetsuya's head chef Darren Robertson in the kitchen, the Bronte cafe has earned great reviews for its dinner menu. Robertson hopes to achieve the same for the snow crowd as he has for the beach brigade at Bronte. The Three Blue Ducks Lodge will operate at the bottom of the upmarket Huski Apartments from June 4 to September 15. ''We are going to rebuild the kitchen, send down our graffiti guys for some renovating and open for the ski season,'' Robertson says.

Dismissal claims dismissed by venue

Former North Bondi Italian Food head chef Erik Jansson says he has a May hearing for unfair dismissal claims. Jansson shared the dream of an Italian butcher shop with North Bondi Italian Food owner Robert Marchetti and was point man when La Macelleria opened late last year. Jansson claims he was fired from the Bondi butchery. A restaurant spokesman disagrees. ''Erik was a cook but not a manager,'' he says. ''He was offered a position back at Icebergs where he originally started. We asked him to get back to us and after about a week he sent a text that he wasn't coming back. He's since made an application for unfair dismissal which has yet to be accepted by the Tribunal.'' Jansson has a new gig in the kitchen at Mrs Sippy, 37 Bay Street, Double Bay.

Milroy and Maul depart Lochiel

Lochiel House owners Monique Maul and Anthony Milroy leave the 2012 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide regional restaurant of the year at the end of the week. Maul says they've sold the Kurrajong Heights restaurant to a young couple, Wayne Jenkins and Jessica Quagliata, with experience doing stages at Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe. Maul tells Short Black they don't have plans to return to the restaurant coalface.

Foley Lane piece of renewal puzzle

Last week's Good Living cover story illustrated the perilous state of restaurants on Oxford Street but it also highlighted attempts to activate neighbouring Foley Street as a new dining precinct. The pieces are starting to fall into place with a new small bar, Foley Lane, set to open next month on the former Salt Clinic site at 371 Bourke Street, Darlinghurst. Foley Lane is by long-time friends Nathan Moses and Julian Marchetto. Marchetto has a hospitality background; Moses was a derivative trader who has bet on a revival for the Oxford Street precinct. The food and drink speak for themselves, Moses says; the decor will ''subtly reflect Spanish culture''.

Stripped-back chain targets healthy-pizza buffs

Jeff Leach, an American archaeologist who founded a pizza chain based on his study of the evolutionary perspectives on health, will open a branch of Naked Pizza at 39-45 Norton Street, Leichhardt, in late June. A Melbourne branch will also open. Leach, who launched the first Naked Pizza in New Orleans - there are now branches in Kenya and Lebanon - came up with the idea after his daughter was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic. ''I wanted to create a healthy pizza,'' he says. ''We had 10 different seeds and grains in our crust. The only thing we will import at this stage is the flour mix. And eventually we'd like to source that locally as well.'' And the taste? Sounds promising, but the jury is out until the opening.

Sushi joint to be sliced up

It turns out Short Black may have been on the money with the rumour about Toko restaurant taking the old Bird Cow Fish site in Surry Hills (Good Living, April 3). Brothers Al and Matthew Yazbek are in the process of dividing their restaurant empire, with Al confirming ''we're headed to court regarding [their late brother and partner at Toko] Daniel's will.'' Al says the likelihood is that one of them will eventually buy the other partner's share in the Toko restaurants or the business will be sold. While Al isn't interested in Bird Cow Fish, word on the street is that Matthew has taken the site. Matthew was overseas and unavailable for comment.

New site in sight but let's not be Hastie

The property search by the owners of Quay restaurant for a site to open a new restaurant with chef Lennox Hastie, has taken several twists and turns in the past nine months. It will be one of the most anticipated openings in Sydney, but there have been near misses at locations from Darlinghurst to Chippendale. Short Black hears the search is almost over, with pen poised to ink a deal on digs in the Potts Point-Kings Cross area. The speculation is the restaurant will slide into an old sex shop. Peep holes in the kitchen might yet prove one of the hot restaurant design trends for 2012.

LONG BLACK

Nineteen months after the New York City Department of Health began issuing A, B, C signs to the city's 24,000 restaurants, to reflect their sanitary violations, customers remain supportive of the scheme but it is despised by restaurateurs. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says salmonella infections are sharply reduced but others say restaurateurs use undue influence to change ratings. The New York Post reported that Per Se restaurant avoided a ''B'' with a call to a city official.