First there was Lina in South Brisbane, then Soko in Fortitude Valley. Now, Potentia Solutions Leisure has unveiled plans for its next major venue, Azteca, which will be unveiled as part of The Star Brisbane and Queen’s Wharf staged openings that begin in August.

The 126-seat restaurant will be on the casino development’s fourth-floor Terrace and feature fabric and tiled walls, mosaic and Aztec-inspired artwork, live greenery, custom-made brass tables, and semi-private circular dining booths.

There will also be a private dining room for 14 guests hidden behind a handcrafted timber door, with imported custom ceramics. Outside, there will be 40 seats on the Terrace with views overlooking the Brisbane River.

The opportunity to open at Queen’s Wharf came about after Destination Brisbane Consortium approached Potentia regarding the development, which will also feature Black Hide by Gambaro, Italian restaurant Cucina Regina and a Brisbane instalment of Star Sydney’s Sokyo Japanese restaurant, among many others.

Potentia co-owner Ross Ledingham says to open alongside these venues is an “opportunity we absolutely could not turn down.”

In the kitchen, chef Zachary Sykes (formerly Boom Boom Room) will oversee a menu that fuses Latin American and Asian influences using local seasonal produce.

Azteca’s cuisine and dark green colour treatment feels like a natural continuation from rooftop bar Soko, which brought together Peruvian and Japanese influences in a more drinks-focused venue.

“Ross just really enjoys that style of cuisine,” says Potentia co-owner and Ledingham’s wife, Christine Ledingham. “Evita, our first venue in the group [now sold], tapped into that, and then we obviously have Soko. You can really play with the presentation, and it’s not a cuisine you see every day.”

Similarly, drinks will centre around a cocktail list anchored by Latin American spirits matched to Asian spices and flavours.

But this will be very much a sit-down restaurant experience, rather than the more freewheeling carnival atmosphere that overtakes Soko of an evening.

“This is something really different for us,” Christine says. “Our larger projects have always focused on being experiential, immersive experiences … so there’s the lively entertainment, almost like a theatre show. This one, though, is literally going to be dining and the bar.

“We’re coming up to our third year, so to be such a new hospitality group and be given the opportunity to be alongside some of those really renowned and highly respected hospitality names is just the biggest honour.

“It puts us on a different playing field [and] we really don’t take that lightly. With Soko and Lina, we tried being really creative and different. And for this one, we wanted to raise that even further.”

Azteca will open as part of The Star Brisbane and Queen’s Wharf staged openings that begin in August.