Riverbar & Kitchen finally set to reopen in Brisbane’s CBD

After being wiped out in February’s freak floods, this hugely popular bar and restaurant has announced an opening date and big changes for the CBD space.

After being closed for almost seven months, Brisbane CBD crowd favourite Riverbar & Kitchen is almost set to reopen following February’s freak floods that wiped it out.

The venue from celebrity chefMatt Moran and the ­Solotel Group was inundated with water, with only its kitchen saved by flood barriers.

The destruction has meant a complete rebuild, with the popular 10-year-old space taking on a bright and fresh new look filled with greenery to carry it into the next decade, along with flood barriers across the entire riverfront of the restaurant to prevent it from being destroyed again in a similar incident.

General manager of Riverbar Wes Smith, CEO of Solotel Elliot Solomon and chef Matt Moran are looking forward to the reopening of Riverbar and Kitchen in Brisbane City.

“It’s probably a really good reset for the venue again,” Moran said.

While Moran described the costly exercise as “a disaster”, he also revealed it had given the team time to reinvent the space for the future, with the bar’s general manager Wes Smithspending the past six months working at various Solotel Group venues across the country under chief executive Elliot Solomon, picking up ideas that can then be implemented at Riverbar.

The result will be a more ­elevated experience for guests that will retain the venue’s charm and likability, while also raising the bar a little higher to attract the crowds who previously frequented the now-closed Eagle Street Pier venues.

“It’s still a bar and the way it works is it’s always going to be order at the bar because that’s what enables us to keep it cheaper, but there’s no reason why we couldn’t elevate the food a bit more and offer a bit more,” Moran said.

That means a menu refresh featuring a new raw section, with the likes of crudo and sashimi, fresh salads, Moreton Bay bug sliders and a Noosa spanner crab spaghetti.

Old favourites such as the calamari, scallops in the half shell, pizza and burgers will all return, though possibly with a twist, as will top-notch steaks and fish and chips.

The drinks list will also be elevated, building on top sellers with a greater variety of wine and new share-style cocktails, such as a cherry pie combining Sailor Jerry rum, cherry liqueur and cranberry juice or a Walk in the Tropics, featuring vodka, peach and passionfruit.

Riverbar & Kitchen is due to reopen mid-October.