Nathan Toleman’s Mulberry Group To Open Five Venues Inside $150 Million Hannah St Hotel

At the end of last year, two big openings – Grant Smillie’s Marmont and Mischa Tropp’s Kolkata Cricket Club , both at Crown Melbourne – set out to breathe new life into Southbank. And next month, another big name in the city’s hospo scene, Nathan Toleman, is jumping in.

Toleman’s Mulberry Group ( Hazel , Molli , Lilac ) will open five venues at Hannah St Hotel , a 188-room hotel inside the new 62-storey residential Queensbridge Building. Interiors are by Flack Studio , the Melbourne designers behind Ace Hotel Sydney and Troye Sivan’s Carlton home , and the hotel team (Time & Place, Hickory, Max Cap Group, and TFE Hotels) says the project cost $150 million.

When Broadsheet meets Toleman outside the hotel, still a construction site, he half-jokes that we’re at the “New York end” of Melbourne. But the location, underneath the Kings Way overpass, makes the scene feel more like The Sopranos than Sex and the City.

The space, directly underneath the freeway, is currently used as a parking lot for construction workers. But in a year or so, when things are up and running, Toleman plans to activate it with flea and farmers markets. It’s directly opposite what will soon be the hotel guest entrance and Hannah St Coffee, a small cafe for coffee, pastries and sandwiches.

Next to Hannah Street is Coupette, a European corner bistro open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, where Toleman says you’ll just as easily find steak frites as you will pasta. The bistro has a large, curved bar in the centre and windows that look out over Queens Bridge Street.

In the hotel lobby is Bar Hannah, which connects to The Carriage Lounge. You can sit either at Bar Hannah or in The Carriage Lounge, which will be a more “intimate spot to grab a coffee or a pastry in the morning. And then as the night goes on, [will have] a darker mood and a bit more atmosphere”.

And on level 10 is Propeller Residency, which will operate with a similar structure to Residence at the Potter Museum. “It was designed and built as an event space, but it’s a pretty cool space, and we felt like it was a bit of an opportunity.

“It’s too nice to have just sitting here empty. So what we’ve basically proposed is a concept called Propeller, which is essentially a residency program where we allow a chef to come in and pitch a concept, and then we will help them to run it for four months, and then if they want to spin it out, we will then help them find their own space.”

The team will also oversee room service and event catering. Coupette and Propeller have their own kitchens, and there’s a large commercial kitchen space on the basement level. Mulberry Group will bring over some team members from existing businesses, and have hired a number of key roles, but are currently in “mad recruitment” preparing for opening on Monday December 1.

Hannah St Hotel is something of a full-circle moment for Toleman, who managed the Lancemore hotel on Little Bourke Street when it was still called the Crossley Hotel, before he opened his first cafe in 2006.

The Mulberry Group venues at Hannah St Hotel will open on Monday December 1.