Queues out the door, but tough start for up-market eatery

People have been lining up outside the doors of this flash new Brisbane brasserie, but issues outside its control surrounding its eight top-quality pastry chefs have resulted in a real baptism of fire.

In a normal world, you would be celebrating if your brand new brasserie had customers lining up outside the doors from day one.

But it’s sure not a normal world and coronavirus has made life challenging for the owners of French-inspired pastry, coffee and food haven Mica, part of the celebrated Montrachet restaurant empire.

The Newstead brasserie’s eight pastry chefs, who hail from some of the top kitchens in France, don’t qualify for JobKeeper or Jobseeker. They also can’t get home.

To make matters more difficult, founders Shannon and Clare Kellam had just opened production kitchen The Kneadery and their Lumiere Events & Culinary Studio weeks before the lockdown began, after 18 months of planning.

“Because we have a lot of French chefs working on the production we did not secure any help from the Government,’’ general manager Romain Maunier said.

“It looks very busy but we’re definitely not profitable at this stage — we’re just surviving.

“But we’re very grateful so many people are coming through and helping us to stay open.’’

One upside of the lockdown has been that Mica’s location, right on Breakfast Creek, has attracted a huge amount of passing trade from locals cooped up in nearby units.

A steady stream of walkers, dog walkers, parents pushing prams and even kayakers have dropped by on their daily outings.

So, instead of delaying the opening of Mica, the Kellams brought it forward to capitalise on people wanting to grab a coffee and pastry while out and about.

Mica is part of a trend among Brisbane restaurateurs to go for economies of scale.

The Kellams decided to build on their King Street Bakery concept in Bowen Hills, adding an a la carte brasserie dining experience to the patisserie’s breakfast offerings.

Once restrictions are further relaxed they will add Hamptons-style deck chairs overlooking Breakfast Creek and open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, sunset tapas and cocktails.

And the Newstead kitchen is also making Montrachet at-home deliveries, a concept the Kellams came up with almost as soon as the lockdown was announced after seeing what was happening to the restaurant industry in France and New York at the time.