A multi-level 500-person capacity izakaya with a bar, dance floor, games, karaoke rooms and stacks of Japanese snacks, spirits and sake. That’s what’s being promised by Sydney-based hospitality group Solotel when it opens Goros in Fortitude Valley early next year.

Taking over the old Little Valley premises on Warner Street, Goros will use the space’s former street-side dining room and second-level bar area, but also have a third level for karaoke and function rooms.

It’s not a new concept for Solotel, with the original Goros opening in Surry Hills in Sydney in 2014. It was inspired by now-CEO Elliot Solomon’s earlier travels to Tokyo, where he discovered the city’s iconic food streets, which are often packed around the city’s train stations.

“They have all these food alleys either underneath or just behind the train tracks,” Solomon says.

“All these shops. There might be yakitori, fried chicken and there will usually be an izakaya as well.

“So while I’d say the concept is based on an izakaya or Japanese pub, the experience is more like what it’s like walking down one of those streets. That’s how we tried to imagine it.”

Goros Sydney is designed as a place of discovery, with different experiences tucked away in different parts of the venue.

Brisbane will be the same, Solomon says, but Solotel’s in-house design team is collaborating with Brisbane-based KP Architects (The Greek Club, Sandstone Point Hotel, Manly Harbour Boat Club among others) to lean into the Warner Street premises’ good-looking bones.

“A lot of the design language will be similar to Sydney, which is inspired by 1980s and ’90s Japan, with plenty of timber and warm colours,” he says.

“But the actual architecture of the building is really, really different to Sydney. Sydney is beautiful, but you’re not really aware of the building itself, whereas Brisbane is this nice warehouse space, with polished concrete and exposed beams that will help add character to the different spaces.

I love Brisbane ... It’s so optimistic. There’s a lot of excitement about the future and that’s really intoxicating.”

Solotel CEO Elliot Solomon

“And there’s also an outdoor space with the laneway, and also it’s a different climate in Brisbane, so it’s Goros but tweaked for a local context.”

The food menu will be similar to Sydney’s, which features snacks such as tuna wonton tacos and crispy chicken wings, teriyaki chicken and spicy pork skewers, plenty of gyoza such as pork and chive pot stickers and cheeseburger gyoza, and mains such as pork katsu curry and miso barramundi.

For drinks, there will be classic and signature cocktails, sake banger bombs and highballs, plus a clutch of beers and wines. The back bar will focus on sake and Japanese whisky.

Goros marks a renewed focus on Brisbane by Solotel, which owns Riverbar and Kitchen in the CBD. It previously operated Aria Brisbane until the fine diner’s closure in 2019.

“This will be the second venue and it’s actually a pretty close walk between the two,” Solomon says. “But if you have two, you might as well have five, just because of all the travel and everything coming from Sydney to Brisbane. If we can get a bit more mass, so to speak, we can have an office there.

“And on a personal level, I love Brisbane. I’m always happy to be there, and I think the whole team feels that way.

“It’s so optimistic. There’s a lot of excitement about the future and that’s really intoxicating.”

Goros Fortitude Valley will open at 6 Warner Street in early 2025.