Richmond pub The Kingston to reopen with a swish dining room and a retro menu

Richmond gastropub The Kingston Hotel will reopen on July 15 after more than a year of renovations.

Open fireplaces, scalloped terracotta booths and walls painted duck-egg blue define the 95-seat dining room, dubbed Marble and Pearl, which hints at its surf and turf focus.

The dining room also features dry-ageing cabinets for the many cuts of steak that are cooked on a parrilla as part of chef Yallambar Bantawa's Argentinian-inspired menu.

Long-time owner Jon De Fraga spent several weeks in Argentina with Bantawa (ex Da Noi, Easy Tiger) so they could nail cooking over coals.

Caesar salad mixed tableside, a cheese trolley and beef Wellington signal a retro revival, while lobster Thermidor, chowder and caviar bumps, as well as a strong selection of champagne, cover the seafood angle.

"It had been an idea of mine for ages to combine a really cool steak restaurant with seafood. No one was doing the two of them together; you could have one or the other," says De Fraga.

He acknowledges that since The Kingston closed for renovations, restaurants such as Grill Americano and Gimlet have sprung up, filling the same niche. Plans were tabled in 2020 and De Fraga, who also owns The Public House and Swan Hotel, expected work would be complete by last September.

The $1.5 million update includes a total refresh of the public bar of the 168-year-old venue, while the 120-person courtyard was redesigned by landscape architect Jim Fogarty with a provincial Tuscan look.

55 Highett Street, Richmond, 03 9428 5841, thekingstonhotel.com