Michelin-star chef and hospitality guru’s history-making new eatery

Woolloongabba’s Clarence takes standard dishes and turns them on their heads with inventive tweaks

Alison Walsh

@AlisonAWalsh

2 min read

March 3, 2022 - 4:00PM

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Cross-river rail excavation, hospitals, the Gabba, there’s so much going on in Woolloongabba’s Stanley St that it would be easy to overlook newcomer restaurant Clarence.

But this longer-than-it’s-wide bolthole, its name inspired by nearby Clarence Corner, where Stanley St meets Annerley Rd, is a worthy option for those seeking to restore their equilibrium amid the urban frenzy.

The 35-seat bistro is in the 1865-built shopfront that most recently hosted Vespa Pizza. Patches of distressed paint cling to the original red brick walls in a spare fitout completed with polished floors, wooden tables and black ladder-backed chairs, a row of dangling lightshades that would create more atmosphere if they were dimmed further, and a small bar up the back.

Clarence Restaurant in Woolloongabba. Picture: Josh Woning

It’s the creation of chef Ben McShane, whose CV runs to sous chef at Nineteen at The Star on the Gold Coast and at one-Michelin star Umu in London, and Franklin Heaney, a former front-of-house manager at Momofuku New York and senior front of house at Nineteen at the Star. Indeed the pair met at Nineteen, where wistful conversations about yearning for their own small, hands-on enterprise resulted in Clarence, which opened in January.

The pared-back menu with new plays on bistro classics begins with mostly cold starters and main course options of panisse (chickpea cakes) fish, chicken and venison, which reveal precision cooking and a passion for sauces that elevates them beyond the ordinary.

The menu changes regularly but on our visit the entrees include a summery green bean, white peach, almond and marjoram “salad”, or a mix of heirloom tomato, fig and cave-aged cheddar. A hot option of tender lengths of squid ($24) stacked on a plate like an orderly woodpile alongside pieces of kohlrabi cut to a similar length and mixed with aioli, the lot scattered with a snowfall of bottarga and chives, is a pleasing beginning.

Similarly duck terrine ($22) is a deconstructed, loose collation of warm confit duck leg pieces mixed with bean chutney and horseradish that is perfect for piling on to chunks of the complimentary house-made wholewheat bread and butter churned from cream from Tommerup’s Dairy Farm in the Scenic Rim.

A fillet of Murray cod ($44) has a beautifully crisp skin, is served with a precisely lined-up four spears of asparagus, and lapped by a lake-like quantity of an appealing white wine, cream and fish stock sauce pepped up with cranberry and hibiscus that adds dimension to an otherwise plain offering.

Roast chicken ($38) is similarly crisp skinned, the flesh retaining moisture, with carrot, nori and a delicious pine nut cream, while venison ($48) with beetroot, cherries, a jus based on venison stock and Japanese accents and white onion puree completes a line-up of carefully cooked protein.

Vension dish from Clarence Restaurant in Woolloongabba. Picture: Josh Woning

Despite the not inconsiderable price of the mains, side options of green salad or crunchy roast potatoes ($8) are extra. In value terms, lunch is the clear winner with two courses for $45, and three for $55.

A tight drinks selection offers a spritz or a negroni , Felons lager, Balter XPA, a cider and a smattering of spirits including Brisbane Distillery gin and rum, Australian wines comprising two sparklings, nine whites, six reds, and two rosés. Wines by the glass are limited to a couple although we are offered the additional option of glasses of a chardonnay and pinot noir from bottles opened that night.