Côte Basque Restaurant Melbourne Unveils an Exclusive New Design

Côte Basque restaurant Melbourne has opened its doors on Crossley Street. Evening light spills onto pavement tables. Wine glasses clink softly. Inside, an open wood fired grill throws warm light across a room built to hold decades of history.

Côte Basque Restaurant Melbourne: A New Chapter From McConnell and McGann

Hospitality operators Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann have unveiled Côte Basque, their first new restaurant since Gimlet. The venue carries a deep lineage. The space once housed Pellegrini's Tavola Freddo Cantina in 1954. It later became the fine diner Becco from 1996 onward. For this latest chapter, design practice ACME handled the renovation. The goal was balancing historic preservation with fresh energy. More on the practice's work can be found at https://www.acme.com.

The idea traces back further than the build itself. "Since my first trip to the Basque in the 1990s, I have been inspired by the region," McConnell said. "We wanted to do an authentic wood grill and wood oven restaurant, dedicating a menu to the beauty of that tradition of cooking." That quote captures the emotional root of the project. A decades long fascination has finally found a home on a Melbourne laneway.

Andrew McConnell Côte Basque: A Fifth Collaboration With ACME

This marks the fifth time ACME, McConnell, and McGann have worked together. Earlier projects include Gimlet and Apollo Inn in Melbourne. Bar Miette and Supernormal followed in Brisbane. That shared history matters here. A design team that already understands how these operators think brings real fluency to the space.

The design approach centers on honouring the building's mid century origins. ACME restored the landmark's original 1950s green terrazzo flooring. Warm cherrywood wall panelling remains intact. Stainless steel framed windows still angle toward the laneway. Nothing here feels manufactured to look old. It simply is old, cared for rather than replaced.

Inside the Basque Restaurant Melbourne Diners Are Discovering

Spatially, the venue makes full use of its existing volume. It retains the signature tiered dining room. This creates distinct zones and a heightened sense of theatre. The focal point remains the open wood fired grill. Produce cooks slowly over flame and embers, visible to every guest.

Near the entrance, a leather lined bar anchors casual dining. It sits backlit by a striking twelve metre mural from artist Magnus Reid. He is an Australian born painter who once built a career as a chef in London. That detail feels fitting for a room devoted to fire and food.

Jo McGann Côte Basque: Building for Melbourne's Laneway Culture

On the uppermost tier, a private event space called the Galleon Room can be curtained off. Côte Basque accommodates guests across three distinct environments. One hundred sit within the main restaurant and bar. Fifty fit inside the private room upstairs. Twenty four are seated continental style along Crossley Street.

That layout reinforces something particular about this Melbourne laneway restaurant and its surroundings. Côte Basque does not fight the city's attachment to street side dining. It leans into it fully, offering both theatre and simplicity under one roof.

Crossley Street Restaurant: What Côte Basque by ACME Signals

The opening of Côte Basque by ACME arrives as Melbourne's hospitality industry increasingly rewards restaurants that respect a building's past. Adaptive reuse has become a defining thread in the city's design conversation. This project adds another chapter to that pattern. The space has now hosted three different restaurants across seventy years without losing its architectural soul.

This kind of thoughtful transition echoes ownership shifts seen elsewhere in hospitality this year. The recent Mr Gatti's Pizza ownership change shows a similar pattern. Continuity and trust shaped that path forward too.

For McConnell and McGann, this Melbourne restaurant interior design project marks a return to slower, deliberate restaurant making. It draws on years of prior collaboration rather than a single quick concept. Longevity in hospitality often depends less on reinvention. It depends more on trusted partnerships returning to do the work they know best.

A Quiet Continuation on Crossley Street

What lingers after visiting Côte Basque restaurant Melbourne is not just the smell of smoke and embers. It is the sense of a building finally settling into a complete version of itself. Pellegrini's gave the space its first life. Becco gave it structure. Now Côte Basque gives it fire. In doing so, it adds one more layer to a laneway that never stops telling stories through the restaurants it holds.