City Beat: Award-winning Brisbane restaurant closed down

BRISBANE’S horror run of upscale restaurants shutting down has continued with the closure of another award-winning eatery after only 14 months of new management.

Mariosarti restaurant in Toowong.

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ANOTHER one bites the dust. Yes, Brisbane’s horror run of upscale restaurants shutting down has continued with the closure of Mariosarti on Toowong’s high street after only 14 months of new management.

The award-winning Italian eatery, which has been a fixture on the strip since 1995, briefly closed early last year after previous owner Daniel Milos was charged with drug-trafficking and
money-laundering.

Kim Hamson couldn’t save Mariosarti. Picture: Campbell Scott.

But it was resuscitated within weeks by new owner Kim Hamson, who brought her more than 20 years of hospitality experience to bear and retained the 14 full and part-time staff.

Hamson previously spent time as a business partner of top-gun restaurateur Matthew Hill-Smith in such prime venues as Shuck and Pescatore. She also toiled at Cha Cha Char and now-defunct Pier Nine.

Her tilt at Mariosarti must have come unstuck pretty quickly. Just a few weeks ago, Hamson unveiled a new menu and hired a new front of house manager.

Hand-written messages on the windows yesterday said merely that Mariosarti had “gone out of business’’ and a new restaurant would open in six to eight weeks.

City Beat hoped to get a bit more info from leasing agent Darren Lucchese, but he wasn’t particularly forthcoming.

He told us only that the place would be “rebranded,’’ yet wouldn’t divulge any details about the new operators.

Hamson, a former real estate agent who mortgaged her Westlake home to fund her ill-fated Mariosarti venture, did not return calls seeking comment.

Former Mariosarti head chef Ryan McIver. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Meanwhile, former Mariosarti head chef Ryan David McIver pleaded guilty in June to supplying cocaine (codenamed “ragu’’) to customers three times in 2016 and 2017 at the behest of his boss.

He was sentenced to two year behind bars, suspended after he serves three months. Milos’ case remains before the court.

They were busted after police raids in Brisbane and the Gold Coast seized about $750,000 worth of drugs.

TAKING A STAND

THE grandson of former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen has found common cause with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Sam Bjelke-Petersen. Picture: Mark Calleja

Not over politics, mind you, but on the issue of standing desks, the flavour of the month in a growing number of offices.

Both are big fans of the new-age furniture, but Sam Bjelke-Petersen has now monetised his interest.

Bjelke-Petersen revealed yesterday that he and his business partner John Beaver had paid an undisclosed sum for a 25 per cent stake in fast-growing Zen Space Desks.

It follows their investment in Alternative Brewing, an online coffee making and accessories retailer.

Brisbane-based Zen has a client base that includes Stadiums Queensland, CSIRO and the NSW Government.

They also have a memorable motto: “Why stand? Because sitting all day sucks.’’

KIND OF BLUE

THERE’S been quite a shake-up in the share register of a loss-making oil and gas minnow headquartered in Brisbane.

Two government-owned corporations have offloaded 13 per cent of the stock in Blue Energy and sold their long-held stakes to institutional investors.

Stanwell Corporation pocketed $7.86 million from the sale, while Korea Gas Corporation (known as KOGAS) walked away with $5.65 million.

Blue Energy boss John Phillips said yesterday that Stanwell’s move was prompted by the State Government’s debt reduction strategy, which “has lately seen Stanwell focus on maximising returns to Treasury’’.

Phillips spun the sale of more than 150 million shares to institutions as a “a vote of confidence in the company’’ and recognition of its growth potential in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

But Blue Energy keeps spilling red ink, reporting an $838,000 loss in the half-year to December.

With just $2.7 million cash, it remains in an “exploration and evaluation phase’’ despite launching 14 years ago.

Auditors continue to warn there is a “material uncertainty’’ about its ability to survive.