St Kilda's Stokehouse to replace Pontoon with a relaxed Mediterranean restaurant in time for summer

Pontoon, the beachfront venue on the ground floor of Stokehouse, will soon be relaunched as Stokehouse Pasta & Bar, an all-day, year-round offering for relaxed coastal dining.

"We are unifying two teams under the Stokehouse banner to create one strong team," says executive chef Jason Staudt. "It's back to simple hospitality with proper, good, generous, honest food."

That might mean spaghetti with crab and chilli, gnocchi cacio e pepe or whole Murray cod with peperonata and chips. For dessert, there will be sundaes and a bombe Alaska with tiramisu flavours. A softer, simpler fit-out will underpin the casual mood.

Before the 2014 fire that saw the whole building razed and rebuilt, the downstairs portion of the building was Stokehouse Cafe.

General manager Hugh van Haandel, son of owner Frank van Haandel, remembers it fondly. "I had my fourth birthday and my eighth birthday down there," he says. "It was a place where you could have dinner, the kids could disappear for a play on the beach, and come back again."

It's that kind of relaxed family-friendly restaurant that he's hoping to bring back to St Kilda.

Pontoon was launched with the rebuilt Stokehouse in 2016. With its 350-person capacity and frosé (frozen rosé) on tap, it was a summer-ready beach party.

"We lost the way a bit with Pontoon," says van Haandel. "It was a beach club and beach bar but the crowd was fickle, the model got lost, it was a bit flashy. It wasn't about friends and family. That's a bit lost in restaurants these days and it seems needed in St Kilda. We can't wait to bring it back."

Open daily noon-late from mid-November.

30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda, 03 9525 5555, stokehouse.com.au