Ping Pong: All-pink restaurant to open at Gasworks, Newstead

A new Brisbane Thai restaurant is set to become an Instagram hotspot when it opens at one of the city’s most fashionable precincts with an entirely pink fit-out and ping-pong ball-shaped lights that change colour.

HOW do you stand out when opening a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic? Make that restaurant entirely pink.

The owner of West End’s hugely popular cafe Morning After and the much loved Yolk in Newstead, Yianni Passaris, will next month open Ping Pong, a modern Thai eatery at Newstead’s buzzing Gasworks precinct.

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Formerly Peng You China Kitchen, the 110-seater is due to open on August 6 and is set to be a social media sensation with the entire room, apart from a secret space at the back, painted pink, including the floor, walls, chairs and banquettes.

There are also 300 balloon-shaped lights across the ceiling that change colour.

Bowyo Muangsong and Yianni Passaris at their new restaurant Ping Pong in Newstead, which is due to open in August. Picture: Richard Walker

Mr Passaris said he was “scared” about opening a new venture amid COVID-19 restrictions, but he was buoyed by the success he was experiencing with his other two businesses.

“[At Morning After] we’re booking out every hour,” he said.

“It’s like doing a Saturday every day. We’re doing record weeks for like seven weeks.”

It has been the same at Yolk, with the tiny eatery that specialises in bacon and egg rolls and coffee attracting diners wanting something they can grab and go.

Bowyo Muangsong and Yianni Passaris at Ping Pong, which has been painted entirely pink with fun neon signs and a secret space at the back. Picture: Richard Walker

“It’s scary [to open a new place] but I think as humans we adapt so you need to make it work,” he said.

“If you don’t make it work then you don’t deserve to be in this field.”

Ping Pong is designed as a casual but refined Thai restaurant offering authentic flavours but with a modern edge thanks to chef and co-owner Bowyo Muangsong. And unlike many Thai restaurants, there will be a strong focus on quality wine, beer and cocktails.

“We want it to be fun, we want it to be bright,” says Mr Passaris.

“I think there’s a big gap in the market for this kind of food.”