Brisbane needs more restaurants like August. Particularly right now. The skyrocketing cost of doing business in hospitality post-pandemic means, more than ever, the industry favours larger groups that can apply economies of scale to these kinds of challenges, whether it’s securing staff or absorbing expensive fitouts and inflated produce prices.
That’s fine, but it can squeeze on the ambitions of independent operators, who often help add fresh ideas and texture to a city’s dining scene. Thank goodness, then, for August, which opened on Friday in an old church on Dornoch Terrace in West End. In the kitchen is Brad Cooper, regarded as one of the city’s best young chefs after his stint at the lauded Bar Francine just down the road; out front, his partner, Matilda Riek.
It’s the couple’s first venue as owners. The 10 Queensland restaurants you need to eat at this year “I’m not sure it’s hit home,” Cooper says. “I don’t really think about it [whether we’re stressed or happy].
It’s so busy, you don’t have time to process, but maybe a bit of both.” The other welcome aspect of August is that it has opened more or less on time, unlike most other restaurant builds in 2024. That’s partly down to its heritage-listed premises.
This still very much feels like a church – just with a pre-fabricated kitchen where the altar would have been, and a bar with counter seating in the front right-hand corner. “Because it’s heritage, we couldn’t put any plumbi.