Top riverfront Brisbane cafe returns after staff crisis forces closure

A top Brisbane eatery is back in business after the hospitality industry staff crisis forced it to close. They have snared a new head chef with an impressive pedigree.

Popular riverfront cafe Medley is back in business after the ongoing hospitality industry crisis forced it to temporarily close last month.

Owner/manger Nick Pavlakis was unable to fill 15 positions including head chef, despite offering $85,000 to $90,000 plus super for the key role.

But the restaurant gods have smiled on Mr Pavlakis, his wife Serena and their business partners after they managed to snare rising young chef Joshua Mak.

New Medley head chef Joshua Mak.

Mr Mak trained at leading Brisbane venues including Gerard’s Bistro and has also worked or trained at honto, sAme sAme, The Euro, Urbane and Longtime Dining.

Mr Pavlakis said staffing was still such a challenge he could open only Wednesdays to Sundays for breakfast and lunch.

But a new sous chef and apprentice chef would start soon, he had put on three wait staff and was interviewing for more wait staff and a bar manager.

“We hopefully can go back to Tuesday to Sunday, but my wife is heavily pregnant with our first child so it’s busy times,’’ he said.

“We expect to reopen for dinner service in September and are taking a few forward bookings for events like weddings and birthdays.

(L to R) Stavros Georges, Patrick Panier and Nick Pavlakis on the deck at Medley. Picture: Annette Dew

The challenge is finding staff, not customers, but it’s now looking promising for us.’’

Mr Mak, who is of Australian and Chinese/Malaysian heritage, said he would continue Medley’s well-known focus on international flavours.

The flood’s impact on fresh vegetables was another challenge, but he and Mr Pavlakis have been working with local producers to source the best available fruit and vegetable product.

“We try to do a lot of research and come up with a menu we can have fun with,’’ Mr Mak said.

He was presently working with a “very temporary’’ lunch menu, but hoped to have an exciting new menu worked out once the recent staff arrivals were settled in.

Medley was named by The Courier-Mail food writer Anooska Tucker-Evans in February as one of the best eateries in Brisbane.

It has received more than 1000 Google reviews and 250 Facebook reviews, most overwhelmingly positive, with TripAdvisor ranking it the 123rd best of 3339 Brisbane restaurants surveyed.

Mr Pavlakis said part of the staffing problem was the drop in overseas student numbers since Covid, with nearby Shafston International College students making up a sizeable portion of wait staff.

A drop in migration from countries had also hit availability of kitchen hands.