Award-winning South Brisbane restaurant Gauge shuts

A critically acclaimed and award-winning Brisbane restaurant, once named “the most exciting place to eat” in the River City, has closed its doors for the last time.

South Brisbane’s award-winning Gauge restaurant – once named “the most exciting place to eat” in the River City has shut after seven years.

The compact casual fine diner along Grey St became one of Queensland’s best restaurants, regularly appearing in the top 10 in the state in coveted national dining lists thanks to its boundary-pushing, out-of-the-box cuisine.

Though loved by critics, Gauge had been struggling financially for the past two years during Covid, initially closing its doors when the pandemic hit and then running gourmet takeaway on and off between sporadic trading.

Gauge restaurant in South Brisbane has closed. Picture: David Kelly

Owner Jerome Batten, who is also behind acclaimed bar Maker around the corner in Fish Lane, had been trying to find a buyer for the business and was in talks with landlord Aria Property Group to try to exit his lease early. 

After lengthy negotiations, the property group agreed to terminate the lease last month.

“It was obvious it (the lease) was going to come to an end, so we just ruled a line under it at that juncture and brought it forward,” Aria’s Michael Zaicek said.

A new tenant has already been secured for the 78sq m site, which Mr Zaicek revealed would be a high calibre lunch and dinner restaurant due to open around September. 

Mr Batten did not return The Courier-Mail’s calls for comment.

Meanwhile, at Woolloongabba, hugely popular American-style eatery Mac From Way Back also announced it has closed permanently.

The venue, which blossomed from a beloved food truck business, had been struggling to find staff at the beginning of the year making it impossible to keep regular trading hours and operate with any type of normalcy.

Owner Dane Coote opened the burger restaurant in the ’Gabba’s Logan Rd food precinct in 2020 and it quickly became a hit with foodies and Instagrammers across the city.