Coming Soon: The Gilson Crew to Open a Late-Night Euro Grill on Chapel Street

Ten years after opening Gilson, restaurateur Jamie McBride is preparing to open his first entirely new venue. Launching next week on Chapel Street in Windsor, The Frog Club is a European-inspired grill and late-night bar built around the increasingly rare idea that a good night out doesn’t have to end with dinner.

“We want to create the kind of place Melbourne doesn’t have enough of anymore,” McBride says. “Somewhere you can walk in for a Martini, have dinner on your own at the bar, or stay all night. Great food, great drinks and genuine hospitality never go out of style.”

McBride has spent the past 18 months developing the restaurant alongside business partner Marc Gurman. While the pair have built a loyal following at Gilson, The Frog Club is a deliberate departure. For inspiration, McBride looked to the grills and brasseries he loved while travelling through Europe and North America.

Culinary director Angel Fernandez, who’s worked under Neil Perry and Victor Churchill, has built his menu around the wood-fired grill. It will turn out seafood, vegetables and dry-aged steaks. Other dishes include burgers, seafood towers, lobster with fries, and an empanada that nods to his Chilean heritage. Desserts will arrive tableside from a roaming trolley designed to bring a little theatre to the end of the meal.

The drinks list comes from acclaimed bartender Matt Linklater, who’s focusing on timeless cocktails with a playful edge, including thrown Martinis – where the drink is repeatedly poured between tins to chill and aerate it – and a collection of Frog Club signatures. Beyond the bar, music forms a central part of the experience. Resident music director Prequel has curated a rotating soundtrack spanning jazz, soul, boogie, disco, funk, Brazilian grooves and African rhythms, all played through a custom Swiss-made rotary mixer making its southern hemisphere debut.

Designed by Nathan Ruttner, the venue preserves the bones of the original building while carving it into a series of intimate rooms, warm lighting and booths that encourage lingering. It’s all in service of McBride’s vision: a neighbourhood restaurant where dinner can stretch into late-night drinks, with the kitchen serving until midnight seven nights a week.

The Frog Club
163 Chapel Street, Windsor
(03) 9523 8144

Hours

Daily 4pm–late

thefrogclub.com.au