A couple of days before Australia’s first national COVID lockdown, I wound up at a party.

I’d been out in the Valley on a Saturday night, poking my head in on different restaurant operators. By now it was clear the federal government would implement national restrictions on social gatherings that would all but shut down Australia’s hospitality industry.

They would end up kicking in a couple of days later, on March 23, 2020.

Sometimes it can be hard to remember this far back.

This was before JobKeeper, before pivots and long before vaccines.

It was before COVID-safe plans and Queensland border closures and whatever else – before what we thought would sink Brisbane’s food and drink scene actually turned out, in some ways, to make it stronger.

In short, no one knew what was going on.

And it was terrifying.

I finished my night with dinner at one restaurant for its final service and then had a lock-in drinks with the staff, which kicked on with a few of us at someone’s apartment.

It was probably ill-advised at the time, going on what we then knew about the coronavirus, and my partner at the time would later tear shreds off me when I finally got home.

But I remember at some point in the early morning lying on my back in the middle of the lounge room of this apartment, staring at the ceiling fan.

The carpet was thick, the music loud, I was drunk. And I just lay there, staring, wondering what was going to happen.

Covering food and drink in this city for much of the past few years, it’s sometimes felt like part of me has remained stuck on that floor, still staring at the ceiling, wondering what’s going to happen.

Brisbane muddled its way through 2020, and then bounced along in 2021, a captive dining market benefiting a lot of operators, while others were pushed to the limit by frequent snap lockdowns (which, brutally, always seemed to fall on a Thursday or Friday).

Then, as we rolled into 2022, came the perfect storm of reopened state borders and the highly contagious Omicron variant, which sliced through chef brigades and front-of-house crews, crippling the tail end of the typically bumper holiday period.

In late February and early March it was the south-east Queensland and northern NSW rain event, which brought localised flooding in Brisbane and all but wiped out some of the region’s best small farmers and specialist suppliers, placing upward pressure on produce prices.

Meanwhile, the national worker shortage was draining venues of their talent.

Just 12 months ago it was easy to wonder what was next for the local industry. And then, finally, things seemed to settle.

Past the pandemic

The year 2022 was marked by continuing labour constraints and the squeeze of inflation, but also what felt like a return to something approaching pre-pandemic normalcy.

Things opened. Proper things.

Simon Gloftis’ STK Group unleashed Sushi Room and Sunshine on James Street.

Former Howard Smith Wharves food and beverage director Hervé Dudognon opened Hervé ’s in Albion; and former Joy co-owner Tim Scott and seasoned restaurateur Andrew Baturo added to the CBD’s dining revival with Exhibition and Tillerman, respectively.

Vincent Lombino and Jared Thibault continued to establish their foothold at South City Square with the chifa-inspired Casa Chow and Euro vino leanings of South City Wine, while Nota’s Sebastiaan de Kort, Kevin Docherty and Yanika Sittisuntorn opened Allonda in Newstead.

Further out, restaurants such as JuJu Dining and Ramona Trattoria helped add new texture to Brisbane’s never-ending suburbs.

“We’ve had a lot of worries over the last few years but the customers always wanted to come – they just couldn’t come because of COVID or because of the floods.”

Cameron Votan

The roll has continued on into the new year with the opening of Pilloni, a Sardinian restaurant from the team behind West End’s celebrated La Lupa, and Guy Grossi’s Settimo at the Westin.

Spring Hill has welcomed a Brisbane outpost for Komeyui, a respected Melbourne Japanese restaurant, while South Brisbane finally saw the opening of Bar Rosa from the Beccofino and Julius Pizzeria team.

Essa’s Angela Sclavos and Phil Marchant have unveiled The Nixon Room just off James Street, and Coppa Spuntino’s Bonnie Shearston and Tom Sanceau are behind Ruby, My Dear, a vinyl bar that will open in Newstead next month.

In short, the storm of the pandemic finally seems to have receded.

It’s possible to see a future for the industry beyond that house party and that carpet and that ceiling fan.

But 2023 presents new challenges.

A lot of operators might (remarkably, it has to be said) still be standing after COVID, but the financial wounds run deep for some.

That’s in an environment of high inflation and higher interest rates, which have squeezed the previously ready supply of easy money, both for households and businesses.

Just in the CBD, you watch as the market constantly reshapes itself against the backdrop of a staggered return of office workers on one hand, and the imminent opening of the Queen’s Wharf development on the other.

Open-and-shut case

Places are opening, but places are closing.

Super Whatnot finally called time on its long tenure as one of Brisbane’s best (and first) small bars. The precisely designed Butler, from the Lune team, barely lasted six months tucked away down the end of Fish Lane. And Three Blue Ducks will depart from W Brisbane in the middle of the year.

There’s no full-blown crisis here but economics has its own form of long COVID, and the prevailing business conditions aren’t as rosy as they were in 2019 – you can probably expect a few more operators to quietly pull stumps in the coming months.

“There is this chat about how these things are going to affect customer sentiment when it comes to dining out,” says Happy Boy, Kid Curry and Snack Man co-owner Cameron Votan.

“We’ve had a lot of worries over the last few years but the customers always wanted to come – they just couldn’t come because of COVID or because of the floods.

“But this idea that they might not have as much to spend is a bit of a concern.”

Votan says rising interest rates and other costs of doing business are almost certainly delaying projects around town – “they’ve definitely delayed some of our projects,” he says – but he reckons the comings and goings-on in the Brisbane food and drink industry have as much to do with the development cycle.

“You have those big developments where restaurants and bars are considered an amenity – your Fish Lanes, your South City Squares – and as their projects come and go, that will change the speed at which we see new venues opening.”

Giorgina Venzin, owner of Melrose and Darvella in Bulimba, and Pawpaw Cafe in East Brisbane says everyone’s tightening their spending.

“We’re definitely feeling the latest interest rises.

“And I also feel that so many places opened after COVID that now there could be too many places to be sustainable … I don’t know how there are so many places opening in New Farm and Teneriffe all the time. That blows my mind.”

Back in the Games

Still, Brisbane’s food scene continues to develop a momentum all its own.

For every restaurateur we lose, one or two are lined up to take their place.

Sometimes they’re established operators taking on new spaces, or former lieutenants spinning off to do their own thing, or even interstate heavyweights migrating north (often beckoned here by the developers) – see Melbourne’s Andrew McConnell bringing Supernormal to Brisbane, following in the footsteps of Sydney operators such as Fink Group with Otto, or Jonathan Barthelmess’ Greca and Yoko restaurants.

“I’d much rather be here than Sydney or Melbourne ... You have the casino coming in the city and then the Olympics – it’s a cool place to make your own now.”

Giorgina Venzin

We’re nine years out from the Olympics and while Melbourne and Sydney have rebounded strongly out of their months-long lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, many nationally minded operators will tell you Brisbane still feels like the place to be.

“It’s very positive,” says Guy Grossi, the celebrated chef and owner of numerous Australian restaurants, including Melbourne’s Grossi Florentino and the recently opened Settimo in Brisbane.

“We’ve come out of December very strongly and you can tell with people that there’s a pent-up demand to go out and discover new things, or revisit old things. And I’ve noticed that Brisbane is probably even more amped up than Melbourne – people are out and about and really enjoying themselves.

“There are those pressures.

“Rising interest rates certainly don’t help any industry and don’t help the economy, but I’m hoping it’s short-lived and that people get through this next period and what will prevail is that people will want to entertain themselves and have that joyful lifestyle.”

Venzin concurs: “There’s so much happening at the moment and that’s exciting.”

“I’d much rather be here than Sydney or Melbourne, because it’s up and coming.

“You have the casino coming in the city and then the Olympics – it’s a cool place to make your own now.”

For Votan, it’s about Brisbane creating restaurants and bars in the lead-up to the Olympics that are a true reflection of the city, rather than a facsimile of venues from other parts of the world.

“Obviously the Olympics will drive so much more development in Brisbane,” he says.

“But if we are striving towards this end point of showing Brisbane to the world in a light where it’s liveable and cosmopolitan and all those things, then hopefully we’re also striving towards a set of restaurants and bars that are uniquely Brisbane.”