Melbourne chef Shane Delia is expanding his food and beverage empire to Brisbane, announcing he will open a restaurant at the Thomas Dixon Centre in West End early in 2025.

Delia is keeping tight-lipped on the venue’s name, but it will feature a constantly evolving menu that taps different cuisines to take diners on what’s being called an “unrestricted spice journey”.

“I’ve long wanted to find a home in Brisbane,” Delia says. “And it makes perfect sense that we’re doing it here in the homeland of arts for Brisbane … This will be my first signature restaurant outside of Melbourne.

“Brisbane has an amazing hospitality environment and we [don’t] think we’re coming from Melbourne ... to change everything.

“I want to be part of the fabric … we want the Thomas Dixon Centre to be a new hub.”

Delia says the restaurant will operate beyond its dining room and help create bespoke events throughout the centre.

“The opportunity we have here at the Thomas Dixon Centre is huge,” he says. “The imagination is probably the limit … I think downstairs, [we’re going] to be able to produce some really beautiful, intimate experiences.”

Delia is celebrated in Melbourne for a series of high-profile restaurants and bars such as Maha, Maha East, Maha North and Jayda, as well as Biggie Smalls casual eatery outlets at Melbourne Airport and Optus Stadium in Perth. He also has a national reputation on the back of hosting television series Spice Journey and Middle East Feast, both of which explore Middle Eastern cuisine.

Delia’s restaurant is another piece in the food and beverage puzzle at the Thomas Dixon Centre, which in the coming weeks will unveil the delayed Bunker Barre and Cafe in the centre’s historical air-raid shelter space.

It will be his first bricks-and-mortar venue in the Queensland capital, although he previously had a presence in Brisbane via his Providoor food delivery service, now owned and operated by Sam Benjamin.

“For me, it’s a discovery opportunity as a new passionate Queenslander,” he says. “I hope to be spending as much time here as humanly possible, and it’s been a long desire for my family and I to become Queenslanders.

“We want to end up living here soon.”