[VIC] Opening Team — Côte Basque (Trader House)

Join the Opening Team – Côte Basque (Trader House)
Opening Late Winter | Crossley Street, Melbourne

Trader House is opening its first Melbourne restaurant in six years. Located in the heart of the CBD, down a historic laneway long associated with eating and drinking well, you’ll find Côte Basque – a restaurant inspired by the culture, spirit, and cooking of the rugged Basque coast.

Opening in August on Crossley Street, Côte Basque will be a place for generous food, lively drinks, and thoughtful hospitality. The menu centres on local ingredients from land and sea, with produce-led dishes that are simple in approach yet precise in execution – humble, but elevated. Expect familiar, well-loved flavour pairings of the Basque and Mediterranean coasts, cooked over charcoal with restraint and confidence.
The dining room is one of the city’s most significant heritage restaurant spaces. Once owned by the Pellegrini brothers, and more recently home to Becco, it is a room steeped in nostalgia and layered with stories of Melbourne’s dining history. It has now been reimagined, carrying forward the same philosophy as the classic venues before it – warm in texture and colour, understated, and designed for spirited times. Spaces for dining, a bar for drinking, and a private room for celebrations have all been created in harmony with the bones of a building deeply embedded in Melbourne’s culinary story.
To take this site into its next era, we’re building a team who care deeply about quality, provenance, consistency, and creating a genuinely welcoming experience for our guests. We’re currently recruiting across all levels of both front and back of house, from emerging talent to experienced hospitality professionals who want to help shape something special from the ground up.
This is an opportunity to be part of a new restaurant from day one – helping shape the culture, standards, and rhythm of a venue that somehow feels both new and as though it has always been there.

The Role
We are looking for a Beverage Manager to lead the program, as well as Sommeliers, Senior Sommeliers, Bar Managers and Cocktail Bartenders of all levels to join the opening team.

Trader House is a collective of restaurants, bars, and specialty retail stores by Melbourne-based chef, cookbook author and columnist Andrew McConnell and photographer Jo McGann. Operating in Melbourne are Gimlet, Apollo Inn, Cutler, Supernormal, Cumulus Inc., Marion, Builders Arms Hotel, Meatsmith Heritage Butcher and Morning Market. In 2024, Trader House opened Supernormal and Bar Miette in Brisbane. A new restaurant, Côte Basque, will open in Melbourne in the winter of 2026.

Trader House is known for restaurants with a strong sense of place, thoughtful design and a focus on seasonal, produce-driven food.

How to Apply
If you’re interested in joining the opening team at Côte Basque, we’d love to hear from you.
Please submit your CV via the link, with a cover letter addressed to Leanne Altmann and Chris Ryan.