Moving into the old City Winery premises, this Modern Asian restaurant feels like another step change for restaurateur Michael Tassis – at least in terms of its immaculate design. Take a look inside.
No, Aunty isn’t a Cantonese restaurant. Owner Michael Tassis wants to make that clear as he walks you through this precisely designed new venue on Wandoo Street, which opens today.
Modern Asian with a “streak of rebellion” is how it’s described on the website. That’s perhaps a bit fanciful (as any venue peddling itself is allowed to be, to be fair) but, scanning the menu, there are all sorts of twists and curious remixes.
There’s xiao long bao, but filled with chicken – rather than pork – and a lemon thyme broth. There’s a take on dan dan with a traditional pork and sesame sauce that subs in ribbony mafaldine for Chinese noodles. It goes the other way too, with a wagyu beef tartare that’s been spiked with chilli bean dressing and is served with lotus root crisps.
Still, some of the original inspiration for Aunty came on a trip to Hong Kong and its surrounds with regular Tassis designers Callum Lui and Sanny Tse of Clui Design. Tse has family there, and dragged Tassis across town, from high-end hot spots like Grand Majestic Sichuan and its rambunctious on-trend sister venue Ho Lee Fook, to humble street food joints in obscure alleyways.
“We went to Macau as well, because I wanted to see that Portuguese influence,” Tassis says. “We went to a bunch of different bakeries.”
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It was about experiencing the old Hong Kong, he says, but also the new and remixed food in that city and understanding how its influence has spread to other parts of the world.
Tassis says the venue’s name, Aunty, is intended as something of a remix too, this time with James Street in mind.
“When you picture Aunty in Chinese culture, it’s an older person who you maybe turn to for advice,” Tassis says. “She’s someone you respect.
“When we sat down to think about how we wanted [this restaurant to reflect the precinct], it was those women in their 30s and 40s who often define James Street. Maybe they’re business owners, [but they’re] independent and dynamic.”
The restaurant itself is set inside the bunker-like former premises of City Winery. Guests are welcomed into a small bar area before, in a theatrical move, a host slides open an imposing door to reveal the restaurant beyond.
Twelve venues in, this feels like a step change for Tassis Group and Clui, the restaurant sectioned off into a series of smaller areas through a clever use of booths, different levels, curved ceilings and curtains.
Emerald-green leather banquette seating throughout is a defining feature, and a shaded mirror runs the length of one wall. It’s a restaurant that can feed of the collective energy of a full dining room while still feeling intimate at the table.
At the back is an open kitchen, its centrepiece a woodfire grill used for key dishes.
Overseeing the kitchen day to day is Salvatore de Ponte, formerly sous chef at Fatcow.
The guts of the menu ranges across snacks, entrees, dim sum, wok dishes and items from the grill.
For starters you might order prawn toast with pickled green papaya and yuzu mayo; a sichuan cucumber salad with wood ear mushroom, crushed peanuts and sesame; or charred lamb ribs with a coriander and anchovy dressing, and pickled green chilli.
Beyond the xiao long bao, the dim sum menu features Moreton Bay bug siu mai with smoked bottarga, char siu pork puffs, and prawn spring rolls with chilli lime aioli.
Larger dishes from the wok and grill include chilli crab Shanghai noodles with crab butter and a bisque foam; wagyu stir-fried beef with oyster sauce, kai lan and a five-pepper blend, and market fish with a ginger and shallot emulsion and pickled daikon.
As usual for a Tassis spot, there’s seafood from the tank – in Aunty’s case, a signature chilli crab and grilled lobster with lemongrass garlic butter – and a pair of hefty steaks in the form of a 300-gram seven-score wagyu sirloin, and a 650-gram Black Angus T-bone, both of which are served with a trio of condiments.
For drinks, there’s a 250-bottle wine list that focuses on Australian drops “but with a little bit of French and New Zealand in there”. Expect plenty of spirited, zesty varieties that can converse with the diverse flavours of the food. There’s also a cocktail list with 10 signatures that tap Asian spirits and flavours.
Aunty was originally scheduled to open before Christmas but weathered the usual building setbacks the industry has wrestled with since Covid. It means Tassis has been sitting on the finished venue for a few weeks, waiting until the madness of the Christmas period dies down before unveiling it to the public.
“It’s come together pretty much exactly how I initially envisioned it with Clui,” Tassis says. “It was an open space so we could do anything we wanted. But I thought the bar out front would always be good – to see people drinking, get that vibe, but then there’s this whole different venue inside, and as you walk through, it surprises you the deeper you get.”
Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
