Straddie businessman to open island’s first kebab shop in Dunwich’s new gourmet hub
The sale of a well-loved pizza parlour is being hailed as a step towards Straddie’s Dunwich village clawing back its reputation as a gourmet mecca for tourists and locals.
Redlands Coast
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A small island village, once plagued by arson, crime and unemployment, is clawing back its reputation with the help of a hardworking businessman who has bought the local pizza parlour and plans to open the island’s first kebab shop.
The island is gearing up for a busy Easter weekend with the pizza and kebab shop ready to serve hundreds of tourists on a new fast ferry service from Brisbane and Manly.
Spar Express Supermarket owner Jay Patel bought the popular CJ’s Island Pizza this month and plans to expand the business to open the island’s only kebab restaurant.
Mr Patel, who bought the Spar supermarket on Ballow Rd, Dunwich, in 2015 hit on the idea when previous owner, island indigenous businessman Solomon Jia decided to sell.
With a boutique brewery, a wine bar with bay views, a cheese specialist and a premium butcher all operating within walking distance to the ferry terminal, Mr Patel said the authentic kebab and pizza parlour would be busy.
“I am the landlord for the building and when the owner said he wanted to sell, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me — I managed a kebab store at the University of Queensland campus for three years, so I knew I could do it,” Mr Patel said.
“Kebabs are very versatile and the meat can be used for sandwiches, on wraps and with a range of different salads.
“Dunwich is really going ahead and now that the ferry operator Sealink has taken over the bus operations, people are seeing this as a dining out destination.”
But the township and its businesses were not always popular tourist spots with Dunwich previously referred to as an obligatory ferry stop on the way to the ritzy holiday hideaway addresses at Point Lookout.
Its reputation hit rock bottom in 2012 after a violent attack on the Dunwich post office which was set on fire and razed to the ground and the postmaster’s wife bashed and left for dead.
Five men were sentenced in 2014 over the incident.
Even the pizza parlour struggled and a liquidator was appointed in 2021, before Mr Jia took over the business which had been run by his father, Charlie.
Since then, the Stradbroke Island Chamber of Commerce has promoted tourism on the island in an effort to attract the tourist dollar.
Chamber of Commerce president Colin Battersby said Dunwich had come of age and its new image was akin to that of Paddington’s gourmet fresh fruit and vegetable market hub in Brisbane.
“Dunwich is really taking over and is the place to get the best food, cheese, wine, fresh breads, coffee and boutique beers while looking out across the bay,” he said.
“At last Dunwich will have a kebab shop with the St Stradbroke wine bar above the shop, which sells retail and wholesale wine from the Morrison Wine Group.
“It has been so popular that instead of just being open at night as a wine bar they are now opening at 6am to sell coffee to those getting on and off the ferries.”
The island, which is one of the state’s best whale-watching vantage points, has undergone a major transformation in the past year with multimillion-dollar sales of two long-term businesses.
Point Lookout’s Fishes Restaurant and Oceanic Gelati and Coffee Bar were both sold in July with vendors fetching more than $3.5 million.
Mr Patel said he would be keeping the pizza parlour staff and employing a further five local staff as he expected the business to grow.
“We are in a long-term game and if we get a little more help from the government that would be awesome because they are planning to build a bigger jetty ahead of the Olympics,” he said.
“A new cultural centre is also due to open at Dunwich some time later this year, which I expect will also attract more people.
“I am hoping that as a local businessman I will be inspiring the local kids because there is no excuse for not having a go.”
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