Cotton Tree Beach Bar: New venue’s opening stuns owners Katelyn and Jonny Giles

Owners of the Sunshine Coast’s newest coastal venue have been stunned by the community response to their opening as they fast-track plans to grow their 25-strong workforce.

A new beachfront live music venue has been so heavily inundated with eager customers they’ve had to turn some people away, smashing their expectations for the region’s newest eatery.

Cotton Tree Beach Bar opened its doors on June 17 triggering a wave of business with the 1oo-capacity venue booked out solid every night last week, leaving them forced to turn away some dine-in customers hoping to get a look at the new place to be.

“It has far exceeded our expectations,” co-owner Katelyn Giles says.

The live music cafe and bar is trading for breakfast, lunch and dinner, offering a range of cocktails, coffees and drinks.

Mrs Giles said the demand for the venue had been a welcome surprise.

“It has been extremely well received by the public,” the 34-year-old said.

“We thought we had a good concept and it’d do well but we didn’t fully understand how much people wanted something like this.”

Mrs Giles owns the venue with her husband Jonny and the pair are also the brains behind Kings Beach Bar which they opened in 2018 in Caloundra.

She said they hoped to give vendors on nearby Ocean St a run for their money with their affordable offerings in a casual, family-friendly setting.

“If you go to Ocean Street, there are a lot of bars. You’re dealing with the party aspect. Not everyone wants to be a part of that,” she said.

The pair took a couple of years to perfect the concept in Kings Beach but once they hit the right model she said the results followed.

“Once we did that, it really just clicked with the community down there,” she said.

“We’re on to something.”

The pair took a year to decide on Cotton Tree as their next venue and were now working to add to their staff of 25 to keep up with the community response to their opening, but expanding with more venues was still a dream they were also working towards.