Brisbane restaurateur Nick Pinn and business partners celebrate opening of Heritij

A crowd of about 250 corporate, media and sporting types have turned up at Heritij to sample the food and drink before it opens to the public.

Restaurateur Nick Pinn opens his Indian-themed Heritij restaurant to the public on Tuesday.

INDIAN MAKEOVER

Another day, another flash venue throws open the doors at Brisbane Quarter.

Or so it seems as a series of new restaurants continue to launch at the just-completed $1 billion retail, commercial and residential complex in the CBD.

On Monday night it was the invite-only opening party for Indian-themed Heritij, the latest offering from Brisbane restaurateur Nick Pinn and his business partners.

A crowd of about 250 corporate, media and sporting types showed up to sample the food and drink before it opens to the public on Tuesday.

Among those on the guest list were Karl Butterfield, Greg Crocombe, Sam Thaiday, John Lin, Hal Philp, Dean Burley, Luke McGrath, Brad Bennett, Wayne Jenvey, Karene Couchman, Bill McDonald, Bronte Campbell, Craig Green, Sam Scott and Kylie Blucher.

With 20-plus year career in hospitality, Pinn’s the brains behind several other top-shelf eateries in the city, including Malt Dining, Vaquero and Drum. He also ran Glass Bar and Aquitane Brasserie.

For his latest outing, Pinn has teamed up with Michelin-starred chef Manjunath Mural, who made a name for himself at the acclaimed Song of India restaurant based in Singapore.

Also on onboard is Sridhar Penumechu, who operates Saffron restaurant on the Gold Coast.

The team have transformed a 788sqm space with views across the river to South Bank in to a laboratory for some ground-breaking new cuisine for the city.

Folks, this is a long way from the standard fare at your local Indian takeaway.

They are taking some risks, infusing Indian dishes with Asian overtones and then presenting it like something you might find in France. Look for the signature flambe leg of lamb to be set alight in front of diners.

The playfulness and experimentation extends to the cocktail menu, with the likes of a Dirty Chai Martini, Darjeeling Julep and something dubbed the Cumin Get it.

Heritij—which reminds your diarist of those intentionally-misspelled tech start up names—joins other upmarket venues in the W Hotel-dominated complex such as Persone and Three Blue Ducks.

POUNDING PAVEMENT

Captains of industry and their colleagues pounded a bit of pavement at the weekend and managed to raise $120,000 for a raft of good causes.

The Running CEOs event at Stockland’s Pallary community on Brisbane’s southside saw 21 company heads and their teams each knock out a series of 1 km to 10 km events, including a half-marathon.

Spied lacing up their Nikes on Saturday were the likes of Telstra’s Claire Johnston, Grant Thornton’s Paul Banister, Westpac’s Dino Zaupa, McGrath’s Steve Hodgson and Planwell’s Darren Henry.

Each chose a different charity but all benefitted from a bit of coaching in the past few months from some of Australia’s best runners, including Benita Willis, Pat Carrol and Patrick Nispel.

It’s the second year the event has been held, with last year’s inaugural haul pulling in $140,000.

GOING ELECTRIC

Fleets of lime green electric bikes and scooters for rent might soon show up on Brisbane streets.

Anthony Fleo and Mayank Mittal, two top guns from US startup Lime, have been scouting locations in Australia for the past two months and are now in talks with the Brisbane City Council.

The company was only launched in January last year but it is already valued at $1 billion-plus and has fleets in more than 100 cities across the US and Europe. It has also recently partnered with Segway and Uber.

With no docking stations, the company relies on GPS to keep track of the vehicles and a smartphone app for payment.

Fleo told City Beat that he expects to launch in New Zealand in about three weeks or so.