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Stokehouse St Kilda reveals design team for restaurant revival

Hilary McNevin

Designers George Livissianis and Pascale Gomes-McNabb, owner Frank van Haandel and architect Robert Simeoni at the Stokehouse restaurant site in St Kilda.
Designers George Livissianis and Pascale Gomes-McNabb, owner Frank van Haandel and architect Robert Simeoni at the Stokehouse restaurant site in St Kilda.Graham Denholm

Ten months after a devastating fire tore through St Kilda's popular Stokehouse restaurant on January 17, the rebuilding has begun.

In May, owner Frank van Haandel appointed architect Robert Simeoni to design the new structure on the St Kilda foreshore and on Wednesday van Haandel unveiled the designers responsible for the two-level interior fitout.

The group's ongoing relationship with award-winning interior designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb will continue. She will redesign the refined upstairs restaurant. Van Haandel has taken a different tack downstairs, hiring Sydney-based George Livissianis to take on the ground-level space. The two levels will operate as separate venues.

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Livissianis is behind the interiors of Sydney restaurants Cho Cho San and the Apollo, both in Potts Point. This is his first hospitality project in Melbourne.

After a tough year, losing the St Kilda restaurant then letting go of Stokehouse's successful bid to take over Bennelong restaurant at the Sydney Opera House, van Haandel is positive about the collaboration and the build.

"Our vision for the new Stokehouse is exciting and we are thrilled to be working with Robert, Pascale and George. Each one brings something quite individual and unique to the St Kilda foreshore," says van Haandel.

"We want to retain the laidback vibe, energy and atmosphere of Stokehouse at all costs," says van Haandel.

The much-loved upstairs restaurant will return, but the Stokehouse team is still establishing a direction for the downstairs space. "But I can confirm it will be different to what it was."

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The designers say it is too early to reveal much about the look but they are using terms such as "relaxed, earthy, textured".

Van Haandel says architect Simeoni has kept Melbourne's often unpredictable weather in mind with his design. Previously, they could use the outside spaces and verandah only 30 days of the year, he says, while the new design will allow the exterior to be used year-round.

In the meantime, van Haandel says the team – led by Anthony Musarra and Carly Skinner – is working hard to keep the Stokehouse name alive at the former Comme, in city laneway Alfred Place.

Stokehouse St Kilda is expected to reopen by November 2015.

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