Chef Andrew McConnell's Stokehouse Reopens in 25 Days

Andrew McConnell and Jo McGann have taken over Stokehouse in St Kilda and are reopening the two-storey foreshore restaurant after a 25-day turnaround, with Marea Beach House & Bar already trading downstairs and the upstairs Stokehouse dining room due back on October 31. The handover ends 36 years of van Haandel family ownership at 30 Jacka Boulevard, a site set 3.5 metres from the beach, and puts McConnell back on St Kilda ground after his years as head chef at Circa at the Prince of Wales Hotel in the mid-2000s.

McConnell, already operating 12 restaurants and six retail outlets across Melbourne and Brisbane with McGann, has put Davy Dai on the downstairs stove at Marea after seven years inside the McConnell orbit. Hugh van Haandel, son of former owner Frank van Haandel, stays on as general manager. Jacqui Challinor, one of three development chefs in McConnell's group and formerly of Nomad and Reine & La Rue, is among the hands shaping menus across the group. Former Stokehouse executive chef Jason Staudt departed several weeks ago. The upstairs replacement has not been named.

Inside Andrew McConnell's Stokehouse Turnaround

McConnell and McGann received the leasehold and split the work across two concepts: the Jacka Boulevard-level dining room became Marea Beach House & Bar, while Stokehouse upstairs was reworked for an October 31 return.

McConnell has known Frank van Haandel for more than 20 years. Frank van Haandel employed McConnell as head chef at Circa in St Kilda in the mid-2000s. McConnell has described him as mentor, business partner, and friend. Hugh van Haandel remains in the room as general manager, a bridge between the family that held the site for 36 years and the operators now asking it to carry two different kinds of service.

Marea opened first after its own blitz renovation, and Stokehouse upstairs follows on Saturday, October 31. Stokehouse upstairs follows on Saturday, October 31, with a revised menu and a room changed for the summer trade. Then the upstairs restaurant will close again in winter for a larger renovation and refit. It is a staged handover, executed with the first summer service already in view.

He now runs 12 restaurants and six retail outlets across Melbourne and Brisbane, including a pub in Fitzroy, butcher shops, and the two-hatted Gimlet. Three months before the Stokehouse work, McConnell and McGann opened Cote Basque in Crossley Street.

Two Concepts, One Address on Jacka Boulevard

Marea downstairs and Stokehouse upstairs give the building two different service tempos. Marea is the beach-level room reached from Jacka Boulevard, where the guest can arrive from the sand and return to it. Stokehouse upstairs keeps the name that Melbourne diners know and returns with a revised setting and a seafood-led menu that McConnell has described as less formal than its previous fine-dining frame.

The restaurant sits 3.5 metres from the beach. The downstairs room is for the person who comes in from a towel, eats lunch, goes back to the beach, then returns to the bar later.

At Marea, the design work comes from ACME. Magnus Reid, a friend of McConnell and McGann, made 10 wood sculptures in two weeks with the help of a chainsaw, along with paintings and copper artwork. Marea has sandy tones, woven rugs, rough-hewn timber, copper, and art made by Magnus Reid.

Upstairs, Stokehouse returns to lunch and dinner daily from October 31. The room will trade through summer before the winter closure for the larger refit. The team gets the room open for the busiest beach months, watches where the room resists or works, then goes back in with a longer renovation after summer.

What Davy Dai Is Cooking at Marea Beach House & Bar

Davy Dai takes the chef role at Marea after seven years working with McConnell, most recently as head chef at Marion Wine Bar on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy. He was a finalist for this year's Young Chef of the Year prize in The Age Good Food Guide.

The opening menu puts the grill at the centre of the station. Prawns come with smoked butter and bisque sauce. Whole flounder or snapper sit beside Berkshire pork chop with fermented chilli. The opening menu includes prawns with smoked butter and bisque sauce, whole flounder or snapper, Berkshire pork chop with fermented chilli, flathead and chips, and a beach shack burger.

Jo McGann said, "We wanted Marea to feel like a place that's been here forever, somewhere comfortable and full of character," said Jo McGann.¹ McGann and McConnell used hand-made objects, textured surfaces, and a menu of grilled seafood and beach food at Marea after a 25-day turnaround.

Dai worked with McConnell for seven years, most recently as head chef at Marion Wine Bar in Fitzroy. Marion Wine Bar is a different room from Marea, but it gives a chef practice in pace, repetition, wine-adjacent eating, and dishes that must hold under daily service. Marea adds the beach, the open-day expectation, and the need to serve a guest who might want prawns with smoked butter at lunch and flathead and chips after a swim.

The Stokehouse Dining Room Returns on October 31

Upstairs, Stokehouse reopens on Saturday, October 31, with seafood at the centre of the revised menu. The named dishes already give the new direction: crab salad, spaghetti vongole, and flounder with kombu butter. Some Stokehouse classics return as well, including King George whiting with hand-cut chips, whole grilled lobster with tarragon butter, and dry-aged Gippsland rib-eye.

The upstairs changes aim for a softer, warmer, more relaxed room. Stokehouse carries years of expectations from diners. McConnell is keeping the house dishes while shifting the tone toward what he calls an elevated beach house.

Crab salad and spaghetti vongole speak to the lighter edge of beach dining; flounder with kombu butter puts savoury depth around a whole-fish sensibility; whiting with hand-cut chips gives long-time guests a dish they can recognize without a speech from the waiter. The dry-aged Gippsland rib-eye remains for the table that wants meat at a seafood-led address.

The absence of a named replacement for Jason Staudt leaves one practical question for the upstairs kitchen as it enters summer. McConnell still oversees menus across his venues, and his group includes development chefs such as Jacqui Challinor. For now, the first test is daily service. Lunch and dinner start from October 31, then the room carries through summer before the winter closure gives the team a second pass at the building.

Why Melbourne Cooks Will Watch This Takeover

He has become Australia's largest chef-owner. Rinaldo Di Stasio, owner of Di Stasio Città and Di Stasio Carlton, put the comparison plainly: "There is no one else who comes close to Andrew in terms of quality and quantity of restaurants, with him being both chef and operator," said Rinaldo Di Stasio.²

The Stokehouse Andrew McConnell takeover enters a suburb with demand for strong dining rooms. St Kilda has carried years of high commercial vacancies, and the cost-of-living crisis sits over every new opening that asks guests to return often. A beach address exposes a restaurant to weather, seasonality, and the demand for broad appeal. Marea must work for lunch, dinner, and the bar. Stokehouse upstairs must hold the name through summer while preparing for another closure in winter.

McConnell and McGann opened Cote Basque three months before this takeover, then put Stokehouse and Marea into motion on a 25-day clock. Dai moved from Marion Wine Bar to Marea. Hugh van Haandel stayed as general manager. ACME rebuilt the room, Reid made 10 sculptures and other works in two weeks, and the upstairs menu was rewritten around seafood while keeping King George whiting and lobster within reach of the old house memory.

Marea Beach House & Bar is open for lunch and dinner daily downstairs at 30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda. Stokehouse upstairs opens from October 31 for lunch and dinner daily, then trades through summer before the winter renovation. The booking paths sit with mareabeachhouse.com.au and stokehouse.com.au/melbourne.

Dai is at the Marea grill, Hugh van Haandel is on the floor, and the upstairs room is preparing for its second renovation after the beach season.