Andrew McConnell is opening a new restaurant on Crossley Street. Côte Basque, he announced today, will be a grill inspired, as the name suggests, by the Basque coast where France meets Spain on the Atlantic.
“The name references our love of Basque culture and the coastline that bridges the northern Basque region of Spain and the southwest of France,” says McConnell. “The raw beauty of the region and a bounty of benchmark produce have long been an inspiration for us.”
It’s been more than a year since McConnell and his wife, Jo McGann, took over the former Becco site in the Melbourne CBD, but it’s only now that the couple has given any indication of their plans for the landmark location, which has been home to restaurant businesses since 1954. It’s slated to open in winter 2026.
What’s on the menu? McConnell isn’t saying for the moment – but he is clear on how it’ll be done: “The tradition of wood-fired cooking that defines this region will be central to the menu and influence not only what we cook, but how we cook.”
The restaurant will seat 100 on the ground floor, including some outdoor tables, and will have a large private dining space upstairs. Acme’s Vince Alafaci and Caroline Choker, who also did the fit out for Gimlet, are co-designers.
Gimlet, which opened in 2020, was the last full-service restaurant McConnell opened in Melbourne. Côte Basque joins a total of nine other restaurants and bars he owns or co-owns here (plus a Supernormal and Bar Miette in Brisbane), as well as two Morning Markets and four branches of boutique butchery Meatsmith.
Reimagining the site, McConnell says, has been both a joy and a challenge. “We don’t have many heritage restaurant spaces in Melbourne, and to have the opportunity to restore the original features in this room is a dream. To continue its lineage as a restaurant will contribute to the wonderful energy on Crossley Street, re-emerging as one of the great walk-through laneways in Melbourne’s top end.”
Côte Basque, 25 Crossley St, Melbourne, cotebasque.com.au, @cote.basque.restaurant