Eatery plans unveiled
Coffees on the house for starters
NO, your neighbours aren’t making it up – the new owners of a Hope Island restaurant site have been handing out free coffee to celebrate their highly anticipated plans for the venue.
Gold Coast couple Don and Sue Matheson have taken over the Hope Island premises that housed three popular restaurants that closed suddenly in April – New York New York, Manhattan on Hope (formerly Joe’s Burgers) and Tiffany’s Cafe and Cocktails.
The Mathesons plan to open The Long Leaf Cafe and Wine Bar and a takeaway fish and chip shop in the next few weeks, with licensed steak and seafood restaurant, Hope Island Bluewater Grill, to follow.
“We’ve been giving away free coffee,” Mr Matheson told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
A property developer who founded CSG Group, Mr Matheson has spent the past eight years working in PNG, where he and a local family are partners in a coffee plantation in Goroka, in the Eastern Highlands Provence.
“The area is known for its production of arabica beans,” he said. “The key is we’re really confident our coffee is a stand-alone coffee – you don’t have to blend it. Its characteristics unique.”
Hope Island Shopping Centre customers have been taste-testing the brew this week, with barista James Babington handing out free coffees – the first time the long leaf beans have been served in Australia.
“We’ll serve it in The Long Leaf Cafe and Wine Bar, make it which will do specialty breakfast and lunch and sunset champagne and cocktails with a tapas menu.”
Mr Matheson premises’ shared would be rebuilt.
“It’s just not functional the way it is. We’re putting in far better equipment so we can get what we want out of it,” he said. said the kitchen
He said the steak and seafood restaurant space was also being refurbished.
The new venues are welcome news for the local community after 40 people lost their jobs when owner Pacific Vanuatu Holdings Pty Ltd shut the New York New York, Manhattan on Hope and Tiffany’s Cafe and Cocktails restaurants in April.