Mt Coot-tha Summit Restaurant and Kuta Cafe leasee says goodbye

After almost four decades managing the Summit Restaurant and Kuta Cafe on Brisbane’s Mt Coot-tha, Jacqueline Barrett has lost the lease in favour of a well-known restaurateur.

Over nearly four decades, Mt Coot-tha has been a perfect perch for its restaurant and cafe leasees to watch people fall in love, farewell loved ones and see the city transform.

So, as they prepare to leave, it feels like just another change.

Earlier this month, Jimmy’s on the Mall won the Brisbane City Council lease for the Summit Restaurant and Kuta Cafe with an offer to pay $20 million in rent over 20 years.

Jimmy’s on the Mall set to become Mt Coot-tha Summit Restaurant’s new operator

Look what’s happening on Mt Coot-tha

Outgoing leasee Jacqueline Barrett was pragmatic about the lease being handed to Godfrey Mantle, the man behind Jimmy’s on the Mall.

“Godfrey Mantle offered an excellent deal for the council, and it’s a commercial enterprise, so they have to take the best offer,” she said.

“We’ve got to accept we’ve had 36 wonderful years and we hope Godfrey will have 20 wonderful years. Time marches on, things change and you just have to change with it.”

Russell Barrett, Jackie Barrett and James Heron at the kiosk window in 1984, before the Kuta Cafe was built. Picture: Supplied

She remembered the former tenant showing her and her business partners, brother Russell Barrett and James Heron, around the site when they won the tenancy in 1983.

“We went through the place and I remember Mrs Chapman, who ran it then, said they’d had it 30 years and I remember thinking ‘Oh my gosh I’ll never be here for that long’,” she said.

“It was a five year lease, so I thought I was only going to be here for five years. And now it’s me telling people I’ve been up here for 36 years.

“It’s a much bigger premises to show Godfrey around than what Mrs Chapman showed us.”

Ms Barrett said the only thing she was worried about was the future employment of their “amazing” staff.

“They love the business – and where the business is – and the whole of Mt Coot-tha: on the hill, overlooking Brisbane, surrounded by forest, it’s a beautiful place to work,” she said.

Jackie Barrett is saying goodbye to Mt Coot-tha. Picture: AAP Image/Josh Woning

The biggest modifications the trio made to the site were in 1996, when they renovated and expanded the heritage listed Summit Restaurant, first constructed in 1918, built the Kuta Cafe and installed decking.

Before that, they sold ice creams and chips through a window of the restaurant, configured into a kiosk, which was popular with Stuartholme students who trekked up the hill after school.

With clear skies, the landmark lookout has expansive views encompassing the Great Dividing Range, the city and Moreton Bay but sometimes that can be forgotten during a busy workday.

“It’s funny, you’ll be walking around doing things, and you’ll suddenly stop and see the gorgeous mountains or the sunset,” she said.

Although in the past week the city has been obscured by a smoky haze from the horrendous bushfires, Ms Barrett said it was a perfect vantage point to watch Halley’s comet soar by in 1986.

“We’ll never see that again in our lifetime,” she said.

“And the jacarandas! At this time of year it’s a purple haze, you can see the city turn purple, and it’s beautiful.”

She said her favourite view was when she, her brother and Mr Heron started their tenure at the site. “It had rained – remember what rain was – and I looked out and there were these two massive rainbows, just sitting at the lookout, it looked like you could walk on them, they were that close.

“The view of Brisbane has changed so much, you kept looking up and thinking ‘how many cranes can they fit in this city?’ That’s what it’s all about: change, change, change.”

Ms Barret said the mountain was “cherished” by Brisbane locals and therefore host to countless proposals, weddings, and wakes, including one where family and friends organised a light aircraft to fly past.

“Thank-you. It was very humbling for us, to be part of so many people’s special occasions,” she said.

Rob Wheeler, Phil Behnke, Barry McGaffin, John Wheeler, Joan Vickers, Herb Brandmeier and Frank Corbett are regulars at the Mt Coot-tha Summit Cafe. Picture: AAP image, John Gass

One group, who cheekily refer to themselves as the “Mount Coot-tha Youth Group”, all from the inner and outer western suburbs, gather at Kuta Cafe every morning for coffee, company and The Courier-Mail quiz atop “the jewel of Brisbane”.

They agreed Mantle should not build a “concrete bunker” or anything “ultra-modern” but were happy to wait-and-see what happened, although Barry McGaffin did voice one aspect that should change.

“It doesn’t open until 8am. It must be the only cafe in Brisbane that doesn’t open earlier,” he said.