The good times at a Redcliffe Peninsula burger bar remembered by beloved owner

A drastic relocation to popular Woody Point will no longer go ahead for an iconic burger bar, with its owners deciding to call it quits — leaving a large and loyal customer base behind.

Once voted third in the Courier Mail’s poll for Brisbane’s best burgers, Beardy’s Bar and Kitchen owners and brothers Ross and Lee Willson have made the call to not relocate and reopen.

The pair was forced from the business’ home since 2017 in Kippa-Ring when the property’s owners filed a development application for takeaway outlets and a gym at Elizabeth Ave.

They closed the doors at Kippa-Ring on July 10 and while they were set for relocation to the Woody Point Marketplace, the cost and toll of finding staff, fitting out the shop and building a new customer base didn’t work on the profit to grief ratio.

Ross said it’s been great to see the business grow from a few customers at a time to a packed out bar with a waiting list.

“I can recall sitting there in 2017 at 2pm in the afternoon thinking I’ve gotta be here for another five hours, watching movies on my laptop because there’s nothing to do,” Mr Willson said.

“The past three odd years, I don’t think I sat down when I was in there.

“There would be an hour long wait for food it was that busy.

“It was great to see the progression of the business and just the feedback from people was phenomenal.”

Former Beardy’s Bar & Kitchen owners Ross and Lee Willson are contemplating the next chapter of their lives. Picture: Contributed

Beardy’s ended up being the brothers’ first solo business venture, previously working in hospitality across Australia and around the world.

Ross didn’t rule out the purchase and setup of a food truck along the peninsula.

“We’ve got everything we have from that shop in storage at the moment so we’re just trying to sift through it and work out what we do with it all,” Mr Willson said.

“I’ve got a 14 year-old I’d like to spend time with before she gets to old for me and wants to move out.

“If you look at any of our review statistics from Google, Facebook and more, we sit at 4.9 over thousands of reviews because we had personality there.

Ross said the last night of business was especially emotional with their first ever performer playing the last show.

“You learn so many people’s names in the peninsula, everyone knows you, you go out and it’s hi from everyone,”

I’ll miss that side, it will be sad.

“Reading through the comments of the post we put up there’s obviously a lot of people that will miss us.

“We’ve had some cracker nights. ”