Stokehouse rises from ashes at St Kilda
One of the most famous sites in Melbourne now hosts one of the city’s most ambitious restaurants — the new $13m Stokehouse.
Melbourne’s new Stokehouse, possibly the most expensive restaurant build in Australian history, will be open December 6.
The brand new restaurant, designed by Robert Simeoni, on the St Kilda foreshore is slowly but surely rising from the ashes of the historic bathing pavilion razed by fire early in 2014.
Stokehouse owner Frank Van Haandel says the cost of the building is now “a little beyond $13 million”. The property is ultimately owned by the public; Stokehouse has a long lease over it.
The costs of achieving five-star green certification, such as thermal heat transfer, have added around $1.6 million to the build, Van Haandel says.
“It’s really quite daunting,” says Van Haandel.
When the previous St Kilda Stokehouse burned down in January 2014, Van Haandel was in the process of bidding to open another Stokehouse at the Sydney Opera House. He withdrew that bid, and the Sydney site has since opened as Bennelong, part of the award-winning Quay group.
Now that the St Kilda operation is in the home straight, Van Haandel is busier than ever.
“I have to recruit something like 140 people in the next 60 days,” he says. “But it’s not bad thing, starting from scratch. It gives us the chance to review our systems, question how we have done things in the past and how we will do it in the future.”
Not everything will be new. Two chefs — one an existing staffer and the other a former high-level employee, will take the reigns at Stokehouse, which will incorporate Pontoon downstairs and Paper Fish, a fish and chips kiosk.
Stokehouse Q (Brisbane) head chef Richard Ousby will move to Melbourne to be executive chef of all the Van Haandel restaurants; Ollie Hansford will be head chef for the smart upstairs dining room. Hansford was head chef at Stokehouse City, in Melbourne’s CBD, before the restaurant closed earlier this year.
Van Haandel has used different interiors architects for the upper and lower spaces, both veterans of restaurant design; Stokehouse has been designed by Melbourne-based Pascale Gomes-McNabb while Pontoon has been conceived by the Sydney-based George Livissianis.