First look: Melbourne’s grandest new restaurant is full of surprises

Of all the new restaurants in Victoria to have transformed historical spaces this year, few have inherited such sought-after heritage splendour as The Lodge Dining Room, which opened this week.

The second-storey restaurant is located in the southern wing of the city’s former David Jones menswear store – a grand old dame with a gothic facade, born as the GJ Coles building in 1929. Its northern wing is occupied by Mecca’s new beauty megastore.

The Lodge has original arched windows, soaring ceilings and tiled columns but more surprising is who’s behind it: not a big-name restaurant group but New Zealand fashion label Rodd & Gunn, best known for elevated menswear.

‘How do we make retail more engaging? How do we have a deeper relationship with our clientele?’

Josh Beagley, director of hospitality, The Lodge Group

The Dining Room is the cherry on top of the brand’s new four-storey global flagship in Melbourne, an extension of the Rodd & Gunn Lodges it has in NZ and Brisbane (with a hatted restaurant), where “experiential retail” ambitiously blends fashion and hospitality.

“We have a canvas to showcase what the brand is capable of, not just limited to retail but across design ... food and beverages,” says The Lodge Group director of hospitality Josh Beagley.

The first phase opened last month: a shiny new retail shopfront on Little Collins Street and beneath it the Cellar & Caffetteria. The subterranean wine bar and bottle shop has cocktails curated by Matt Bax (founder of the acclaimed but now-closed Bar Americano) and a snackable, shareable Italian menu.

Unveiled on November 20, the project’s second phase is more intriguing. It incorporates not only the restaurant, but a moody bar one level down, also helmed by Bax.

“It’s really a celebratory dining room,” says Beagley of the restaurant. But while the building’s bones speak for themselves, “the flair we’ve added leans into the art deco of it all”.

Ascending an original marble-tiled staircase into the restaurant, there’s a royal blue banquette on your left and a custom-made, multi-panelled mirror behind the bar to your right, both emulating art deco style. The tables are Carrara marble, including in the 14-person glass-walled private dining room, and speakers from Tasmanian makers Pitt & Giblin fill the corners.

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Matching the beauty of the building was a driver for executive chef James Evangelinos, who’s relocated to Melbourne after running the kitchen at The Lodge in Brisbane. His menu is a cut above what’s offered at Rodd & Gunn restaurants elsewhere, focused on technique-driven, French-influenced fine dining with mostly classic flavours.

Attempts at high-concept retail are seldom seen on this scale in Australia, particularly at a time when bricks-and-mortar shopping is volatile. In the late ’90s, longstanding Collins Street department store Georges relaunched with three upmarket restaurants, but shut after a year. In the same era, Italian luxury brand Armani opened and closed a cafe in its Sydney boutique that former Sydney Morning Herald restaurant critic Terry Durack awarded a hat in 1995.

“The thinking was, ‘How do we make retail more engaging? How do we have a deeper relationship with our clientele?’,” says Beagley.

Meals in The Lodge Dining Room start with the old-school European hospitality of complimentary bread, featuring several bakes of the day centred around a lofty brioche loaf glazed in caramel.

The $75-a-head fruits de mer is essentially a table-blanketing seafood course, a selection of raw and creatively cooked bites such as moreish abalone croquettes.

Beyond, find gently poached Shark Bay scallops with charred white asparagus and a liquid-nitrogen-charged almond dressing spooned on tableside. Sweet marron is served in a delicately flavoured marron bisque alongside a roulade of summer squash.

Mains include an ember-roasted kohlrabi dish with wild greens and a pecan emulsion, and a deconstructed bouillabaisse where roasted bass grouper is the star. Finish with the handcrafted chocolate bons bons.

Diners can order a la carte or choose from a three-course prix fixe for $145, or six- or nine-course tasting menus for $155 and $255 each.

One floor below in the Member’s Bar – which despite its name is open to the general public – Bax and his team create cocktails without confines. The Penicillin is done highball style for a more refreshing finish, with puffed-up crisps of manuka honey. The very green, very foamy R.I.P Frog Club mashes up the Ramos gin fizz and the pina colada with matcha from Bax’s tea house Samu.

The clubby, compressed bar feels a world away from the restaurant above. Drop in for a snack and cocktail before dinner, or slink in for a nightcap afterwards.

Rodd & Gunn might be the name on the door, but you can choose to engage with the brand itself as much or as little as you like.

In the Cellar & Caffetteria, a cavernous underground space for casual wining and dining, visitors can grab a bottle to go or drink there from more than 350 displayed on a wall of wine, set in front of the remains of a multicoloured Coles mural.

The booziest drawcard there, though, is what’s coming out of Bax’s dedicated cocktail bar, where he’s ageing, infusing and distilling for a list of five Italian-ish drinks such as a limoncello margarita and an espresso martini made with moka-pot coffee.

As well as his cocktail chops, Bax brought an intimate local knowledge to the project. “We might be a restaurant group, but we don’t have a group of restaurants in one city,” says Beagley. “[Bax] gave us that quintessentially Melbourne perspective.”

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The Caffetteria menu includes handmade pastas and a whole roasted Bannockburn chicken with panzanella, the tomato and bread salad.

The Lodge Dining Room: dinner Tue-Sat

Cellar & Caffetteria: lunch Tue-Sun, dinner Mon-Sat

280 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, roddandgunn.com/au/the-lodge-group/melbourne

Correction: an earlier version of this story stated that Matt Lambert oversees the Caffetteria menu. He is no longer involved and James Evangelinos oversees all menus and culinary teams at Rodd & Gunn in Melbourne.