First, the bad news. Bright hot spot Tani Eat & Drink will close in April, and will start offering a more relaxed share menu from February 15.

Now the good news. Owner-chefs Hamish Nugent and Rachel Reed will throw their energy into a new venture, Reed & Co Distilling, releasing their first product under the Remedy Gin label on April 10. 

The pair, who are expecting their first child in March, will also join Bright coffee roasters Sixpence in a distillery, roastery, bar and retail space, which they hope to open by early July.

It was the prospect of juggling a new baby, Tani, the distillery and Yama Kitchen & Bar (the Mount Hotham restaurant they run during winter) that made them realise they couldn't do everything, says Reed. "It's forced our hand a bit."

They decided to close Tani, awarded New Regional Restaurant of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2014, to focus on the distillery. 

Creating botanical flavour profiles for gin is similar to cooking, says Reed. They're shooting for something that evokes Victoria's north-east, using pine needles, mountain pepper leaves and berries, two kinds of eucalyptus, lemon myrtle and lemon verbena, many of them ingredients they've gathered themselves.

They'll serve the resulting gin, along with other craft spirits, beers, wines and bar snacks, in the distillery bar, which will start taking shape soon in a former mechanical workshop in Wills Street, Bright.

They've already released their first small batch gin, from the still temporarily housed at Tani, to local bars and restaurants.