One of Melbourne’s best-loved dining spaces will reopen on Friday as Cote Basque. The 100-seat European grill is the first Melbourne restaurant from Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann’s Trader House group since Gimlet launched on Flinders Lane in 2020.

The Crossley Street venue first welcomed diners in the 1950s as an offshoot of Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar. Between 1996 and 2024, it housed Italian restaurant Becco, site of many a tie-loosening lunch and pasta-fuelled celebration.

“It’s an important space for so many people,” says McConnell. “I had my first coffee, a cappuccino, at Pellegrini’s when I was 14. I have had countless customers and friends telling me it’s so wonderful, please don’t f--- it up.”

Key to the room is the way it steps down the laneway from Bourke Street towards Little Bourke, with steel-framed windows angled to the street, giving it an air both industrial and whimsical. The mid-century green terrazzo floor has been restored, along with burnished cherrywood panelling and a newly leather-lined bar that will make even the slightest excuse for a bite seem like an epic occasion.

The restaurant channels McConnell’s memories of the Basque Country, spanning north-eastern Spain and south-western France. His first meal on the ‘Basque coast’ was as a young chef in the early 1990s, when he ate at fourth-generation three-Michelin-star Arzak Restaurant. “It was my first real top-end restaurant in Europe, eye-wateringly expensive for me at the time, but I still remember every element,” he says.

As he returned to the region over the years, other elements stood out. “There are pintxos [snacks on sticks] in San Sebastian, a humble, soulful approach to braises, and a restrained and precise approach to cooking on a grill. Outside of Japan, I don’t think there’s any country that handles seafood as well as Spain.”

“I’ll be just as happy if someone sits outside for an espresso and keeps walking, has a cocktail before a show, or comes for an incredible meal.”Andrew McConnell, chef-restaurateur

Head chef is longtime Trader House collaborator Allan Doert Eccles, previously at Cumulus Inc. The one-page Cote Basque menu contrasts with the brasserie sprawl of Gimlet’s offering: you can read this one with your elbows in.

“I’m excited about having a concise a la carte, giving us time and space to finesse,” says McConnell. “That’s balanced by a spontaneous grill menu that changes every day, creating a unique experience every time.”

He lights up when talking about strawberry clams from NSW – “small, slightly pink and just delicious” – and little royal red prawns (“amazing texture”), which are served raw as the crowning glory of a crouton topped with boudin custard and smoked tomato.

There’s also David Blackmore’s Rohne beef, a hybrid of wagyu and Galician rubia gallega, just as famed as the Japanese breed for its marbling.

In an interview days before the opening, McConnell sounds just as thrilled about the vegetables.

“When we lit the fire for the first time, we put in cippolini onions that not only cooked but smoked as the oven was warming,” he says. “We’re roasting greens and dressing them with green caper sauce, and artichokes are served with celeriac and marjoram.” That’s in the dead of winter. “I can’t wait for asparagus season,” he says.

There are cheeky throwbacks too, including a Cosmopolitan cocktail straight out of the 1990s, and a Monday veal cotoletta special, a hat-tip to a Becco favourite.

McConnell hopes Cote Basque will become part of the city’s easy rhythm, adding frisson to a laneway that includes a tailor, new taco shop Super Taco and Traveller, a tiny place for great coffee.

“We want people to be comfortable to use the space as they wish,” he says. “I’ll be just as happy if someone sits outside for an espresso and keeps walking, has a cocktail before a show, or comes for an incredible meal, creating their own adventure with things off the grill.”

He and McGann weren’t actively looking for a new restaurant when Becco owner Simon Hartley decided to call time. “We felt it was a unique part of Melbourne’s restaurant history, so we took the leap,” says McConnell.

Is he nervous about another city restaurant in an era of working from home and reduced spend? “I am optimistic about the CBD’s energy and potential, and I think as an industry we have to encourage people to keep using it.”

This is restaurant number nine for Trader House, plus bar Apollo Inn, four Meatsmith butchers and two Morning Market grocery cafes. When is enough enough? “I’m blessed that I still love what I do,” says McConnell. “I enjoy working with our team, connecting with our customers. I feed off the energy of a restaurant and I love it when all the parts come together.”

Trader House is also taking over St Kilda’s Stokehouse in spring. Right now, McConnell is energised, smiling over Cote Basque’s potato flatbread as it emerges from the oven. “But maybe ask me again in October,” he laughs.

Cote Basque opens Friday, August 7.

Open daily, lunch and dinner