First look at Dolly, Le Meridien’s glam new dining act inside the former Palace Theatre

Lights and action will return to the storied Bourke Street address that was once a cinema, Metro nightclub and the Palace Theatre when it opens next week as Le Meridien hotel, part of an upscale chain that started in Paris in the 1960s.

Dolly, the in-house restaurant below street level, pays homage to the building's history with its design, heavy on Hollywood golden age flourishes, and a nostalgic menu to match. Surrounded by Grecian columns, reed glass and scalloped booths, diners will time-travel to the era of lamb crepinettes, beef Wellington, fish en papillote and bombe Alaska.

Executive chef Christian Graebner says he wanted to offer the "glitz and glamour of the old days". The German-born chef is a hotel kitchen veteran whose most recent role was at Pan Pacific in South Wharf.

The cast for the hotel's drinking and dining reads like a who's who of Victoria. Graebner is sourcing Portarlington mussels, O'Connor beef and Yarra Valley game. Fitzroy drinks institution The Everleigh wrote the cocktail list. Ground-floor cafe, Intermission, serves Axil Coffee.

Meanwhile, sommelier and distributor Patrick Walsh was tasked with the wine list, which emphasises Melbourne's Dress Circle: vineyards extending from Geelong round to the Mornington Peninsula. Among the 75 bottles is a smattering of French, Austrian and New Zealand wine.

Walsh was drawn to the project because of Le Meridien's openness to do something fresh and contemporary with their drinks.

"It felt like it's been a while since we had a hotel-operated restaurant where someone was going to have a red hot go," Walsh says.

The 12-storey property includes 235 rooms and a rooftop pool deck with views of Parliament House, as part of Le Meridien's $100-million development of the former Palace Theatre site, a project that attracted controversy when the theatre closed.

Dolly at Le Meridien is open Tue-Sat 5pm-to late from March 16.

20 Bourke Street, Melbourne, dollymelbourne.com