Fitzroy Street, Reawakened: Inside the Grand Launch of Novotel St Kilda

Fitzroy Street has always carried a certain swagger. Palm trees, salt air, a little faded glamour and a lot of history. So when the former Saint Kilda Beach Hotel reopened as Novotel St Kilda, the occasion called for more than a ribbon and a press release. It called for a proper launch.

We were there. And the street, it has to be said, has rarely looked better.

The transformation, led by owner ERDI in partnership with Accor, is a complete reimagining rather than a refresh. FORUM Studio, VERSA and Dezign shaped the new look: 80 rooms and suites in soft coastal tones, with bold colour and detailing that nods to the beach a few minutes down the road.

You enter through a light-filled garden atrium, and on launch night a violinist in a gown of white blooms set the tempo before anyone had found a glass. This is a hotel that wants you to slow down, linger and stay a little longer than planned.

At the heart of the hotel sits Urban Kitchen & Bar, an all-day dining room built around a wood-fired oven imported from Verona. The menu leans modern Australian with a coastal accent: freshly shucked oysters, seafood pastas, market fish and pizzas pulled straight from the fire.

On the night, the oysters arrived in towers, Peking duck pancakes did the rounds, and the Taittinger was kept very cold. Starward whisky and Dutch Rules gin held court at the bar. The everyday wine list stays proudly local, travelling from cool-climate Grampians estates to full-bodied Heathcote shiraz.

The speeches were short, warm and delivered to a packed atrium in front of the new Novotel wall. Then the crowd did the only sensible thing and headed upstairs.

The rooftop is the hotel's quiet triumph. Open-air, on level five, with room for 150 guests and views across the city skyline to Port Phillip Bay. As the sun dropped, live percussion played over the DJ set, pizzas came out of the oven and the skyline did the rest.

For couples, take note. Between the rooftop, a ballroom made for weddings and a boardroom with its own private courtyard, the hotel quietly covers the whole weekend: welcome drinks with the bay as backdrop, the main event downstairs and a recovery breakfast steps from the sand.

Then came the feathers. Samba dancers in gold and turquoise took over the rooftop and QOD Entertainment made sure no one was thinking about going home. St Kilda, in other words, was entirely itself.

Fitzroy Street has its energy back. Novotel St Kilda is the anchor of the $196 million St Kilda Collective renewal of the strip, with Luna Park, the Palais Theatre and the beach all a short stroll away.