Andrew McConnell’s Stylish Côte Basque Arrives on Crossley Street

A new Andrew McConnell restaurant inevitably raises the pulse of Melbourne diners. But his latest venture, Côte Basque, has raised expectations too. This is the first restaurant that hospitality group Trader House, which McConnell owns with his partner Jo McGann, has opened since Hot Listed Gimlet in 2020. The 18-month gestation period has also heightened anticipation. But the real kicker is that this ode to the grill restaurants of Europe’s Basque region is in one of Melbourne’s most renowned restaurant sites.

Côte Basque is only the third business to operate at the Crossley Lane address, which opened in a blaze of terrazzo and cherrywood-panelled glory as Pellegrini’s buffet-style restaurant, Tavola Freddo Cantina, in 1954. 

The second incarnation came in 1996 when it became Becco, a swaggeringly stylish Italian restaurant that witnessed a generation’s worth of marriage proposals, business deals, trysts and landmark birthday celebrations, not to mention a citywide love affair with stuffed, deep-fried olives and the Campari-stained signature cocktail, the Becco Macchiato. It’s one of those sites that inspire an emotional connection, something McConnell is well aware of.

“A friend of mine told me he had his first date with his wife here. [It’s] where he proposed and where they got married,” he says. “So I knew we were moving into a space that people have a degree of ownership over and that added pressure and responsibility. We wanted to maintain that connection, and fortunately the layout was perfect and didn’t need to change. We’ve rebuilt rather than reinvented so it feels familiar and has remained true to itself.”

Acme, the Sydney design studio behind Gimlet, has retained all of the 100-seat dining-room’s brilliant original features, from the iconic terraced layout and wall of angled steel-framed windows to the green terrazzo floor, ceiling detailing and the warmth of the original wood panelling.

There are also nods to the style of the linen-dressed restaurants of 1950s Milan, as well as the storied, now-closed Manhattan restaurant La Côte Basque, known for its seaside murals by Bernard Lamotte. In the bar, you'll find a playful, ’60s-style, 16-metre mural by artist Magnus Reid, depicting a parade of people on their way to a bar, including a woman backflipping into a Martini. Outdoor seating adds to the continental vibe, but it’s in the open kitchen that Côte Basque’s identity is strongest. Here are crème brûlée-coloured tiles, a woodfired oven and a charcoal grill, helmed by talented chef Allan Eccles (formerly head chef at McConnell’s Cutler).

“I’ve always loved the sophisticated simplicity and the finesse of cooking over wood you find in the grill restaurants in the Basque region,” says McConnell. “We’ve reduced the amount of gas and electricity in the kitchen so we’re forced to frame the whole menu around wood, not just with meat but with seafood and vegetables too. Our approach is more around technique and influence rather than historical dishes.”

A concise, two-part menu features a page of daily-changing ingredients cooked over mallee root and coconut charcoals – perhaps leeks, king prawns, strawberry clams or yellow-eye mullet. A page of signature dishes includes a fisherman’s soup, roast duck with Madeira prunes, a hanger steak with roasted cipollini onions, and bluefin tuna belly with a Gilda sauce made from green olives, guindillas, anchovies and olive oil. On Mondays, as a nod to Becco, the menu features cotoletta.

The menu centres seafood and vegetables, but beef also gets careful attention. Côte Basque features a new hybrid from Wagyu producer Blackmore, a crossbreed of Wagyu and Galician rubia gallega. A whole carcass is broken down by Trader House butcher Meatsmith so that multiple cuts – rib eye, eye fillet, bavette, oyster, blade and skirt – appear throughout the week.

The drinks list includes a finely tuned European-influenced wine list from Trader House beverage director Leanne Altmann and a sharp list of on-theme cocktails like Porto Tonico – a blend of white port, Calvados and tonic – and a signature Vodka Martini featuring Lustau Vermut.

“Côte Basque celebrates the DNA of a special site and a region of Europe that’s often overlooked – two things that are inspiring to us,” says McConnell. “It’s all about doing a few things simply and beautifully.”

Côte Basque opens Friday August 7.

Côte Basque

25 Crossley Street, Melbourne

03 9277 9770

Hours:

Daily midday–late

cotebasque.com.au

@cote.basque.restaurant