Craft beer and surfing collide at new southern Gold Coast restaurant and bar

Hang ten at the southern Gold Coast’s new bar and restaurant, where the relaxed surfer vibes flow as freely as the craft beer. Check out what’s on the menu.

CRAFT beer and surfing go together like Mick Fanning and cut-backs, so a collaboration with a leading lager company was a no-brainer for Coolangatta surf shop Boardriders.

4 Pines Brewing is now operating Boardrider’s attached hospitality venue, reviving the business with a new focus on evening trade — because you can’t surf at night, right?

“It was a cafe called Cafe 28 Cooly,” 4 Pines x Boardriders venue manager Todd Wilson says.

“We’ve still kept the cafe essence, but we’re opening evenings now with a lunch and dinner menu, live music, laid-back tunes, and nice, beautiful, crisp beers on tap.”

Opening last Wednesday, Todd says the two companies complemented each other as brands with reputations for being relaxed and sociable.

NEW RESTAURANT TO OPEN FROM ESTEEMED COAST PAIR

New bar and restaurant 4 Pines x Boardriders opens in Coolangatta.

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“4 Pines is a sensational company and Boardriders is retail. When this property came up for grabs, 4 Pines was accepted because it was a really good mutual agreement — both laid-back and surfy style, a fun place to be,” he says.

“They (Boardriders) wanted to build more of a hospitality venture, and this was a really good partnership together for both names and brands.”

After a three-week renovation, the bar and restaurant is now serving up a broad selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a healthy beer and cocktail list.

Post-surf breakfasts include sauteed mushroom and a poached egg on sourdough or sweet spiced granola with shaved coconut, while the lunch and dinner menu is a nod to this generation’s fondness for share plates with spiced chicken wings, roasted cauliflower and charred veggie tacos, as well as a selection of gourmet burgers.

FIRST LOOK AT NEW FAMILY-FRIENDLY NORTH COAST CAFE

4 Pines x Boardriders in Coolangatta has new SmartBrew tanks which ferment beer on site.

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“We’ve got our own Cornflakes crunch chicken burger with buttermilk chicken — it’s phenomenal, so crunchy,” Todd says.

“There’s also the Beyond burger, which is the new vegan burger. And you’ve also got your chicken parmigiana for a post-surf feed.”

Being 100m from the beach is enough reason to switch into holiday mode, so boozy breakfasts are covered with cocktails the Brekky Beer (pale ale, vodka, acai puree, lemon juice) and a breakfast martini (dry gin, orange marmalade, Cointreau and lemon juice).

The addition of SmartBrew tanks, a new brewing technology that ferments on-site, ensures the schooners will be as fresh as those coming out of the 4 Pines headquarters in Manly, north of Sydney.

“All the beers are only 4 Pines, but we have some local spirits form regional Australia and some local gins as well, and our ginger beer Brookvale Union,” Todd says.

“We also have our own delicately, specially made cocktails. You can sit outside with a cocktail jug and relax.”

COAST’S NEW RUM BAR OFFERING HUSK DISTILLERS SPIRITS

Muesli bowl from 4 Pines x Boardriders Coolangatta.

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While surfers are known for protecting their haunts on land and sea, Todd says the community has welcomed the change.

“The opening day was brilliant, one of the old locals came in and said their place had been upgraded and tried the new menu, and they were very happy their regular barista was on,” Todd says.

“We’re laid-back with the locals — you sit back, you come as a stranger and you leave as a friend.

“Everyone wants to work here and be here, like a surfing community.”

4 Pines x Boardriders is open daily from 7am at 28/72 Marine Pde, Coolangatta