Hamish Nugent and Rachel Reed, owner-chefs of Bright’s Tani Eat & Drink, certainly understand this.

The couple will close their award-winning restaurant to concentrate on a distillery venture and another important “project”, the birth of their first child.

Nugent said the decision to shut Tani’s doors at the end of April was a difficult one.

“We’ve been holding off, we’ve been trying to work out options,” he said. “Reality really hit hard coming over the summer that we essentially need both of us here to run the business.

“It was one or the other, so we decided to keep going with the distillery.”

Between now and April, Tani Eat & Drink will offer a more informal menu.

“The food will still be representative of what we do,” Nugent said. “We’re just going to go to share plates to make it a bit easier on the kitchen and the floor and just really focus on that side of a fun dining experience.”

The couple will also continue to operate Yama Kitchen & Bar at Mount Hotham in winter.

Tani Eat & Drink, which opened in December 2012, was named New Regional Restaurant of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2014 and received its first hat a year later.

Nugent said while such awards gave them confidence, “it’s more just day-to-day running that’s an achievement … it’s a hard game”.

Reed & Co Distilling, which has produced its first limited batch of Remedy Gin, will move to a new Bright site later this year with Bright coffee roasters Sixpence.

Nugent said the distillery began as just a hobby.

“We started doing bits and pieces and it kind of grew into an obsession and it’s just kept growing,” he said.

“Our first interest wasn’t actually about alcohol, it was more about distilling and extracting flavours and using stills to do that.

“It’s fun, we enjoy it, we still get to go out and pick everything for it and follow the process right through.”

The new site in Wills Street will include a distillery and roastery door as well as a bar, tastings and retail space. Sixpence Coffee’s existing Churchill Avenue business will also continue.

Reed said they had been looking at sites for some time.

“It’s finally come to fruition,” she said “We can’t wait to get in there, we’ve got a lot of work to do.” 

Reed and Nugent thanked everyone who had supported Tani Eat & Drink for more than four years.

“We have enjoyed our time at Tani enormously and are very proud of what we have built,” they said. “It is now time for us to move on to the next chapter.”