Locals (and their dogs) are flocking to this former post office for rare and precious – but affordably priced – bottles from Australia, France, the Czech Republic, Canada and beyond.
Readers who follow Australian comedy might most readily associate Matt Okine and wine with his role in a sketch on Nazeem Hussain’s series Legally Brown.
Called White Person Dancing Lessons, it was one of the best moments in the show’s 2013 run. In it, Okine arrives at a secret location to learn from Hussain and Ronny Chieng the art of “dancing like a white person” – that is, with no rhythm or grace.
It’s not until Hussain and Chieng make him guzzle a few glasses of red wine that he gets the hang of it.
But it turns out Okine has a more sophisticated relationship to wine – at least in 2025. He’s one of the owners of LPO, which opened in Tarragindi last week. Partnering with him in the business is Dan Wilson, a seasoned chef who, pre-pandemic, ran kitchens and opened his own venue, Dandy, in London.
“Matt and I are old friends from university [in Brisbane],” Wilson says. “I had dated someone who was studying law, who then was in a close relationship for a couple of years with Matt’s closest friend, Paul.
“So Matt, Paul and I would spend a lot of time together in our mid-20s, I suppose, before everyone started working properly and trying to have a career.”
The original idea of LPO was born out of a Christmas party at Dandy that Okine happened to attend.
“He rocks up and it’s a room full of hotshot chefs from Copenhagen and all over London, France,” Wilson says. “He was saying, ‘How can we do something like this, where we can sit and drink and meet people?’
“When he moved back to Brisbane a couple of years ago, it was that kind of thing he was missing in the neighbourhood: a nice place to go and drink wine and be treated like a human being.”
LPO is short for “Local Post Office” after Okine and his wife, Belinda Rabe, found an old post office for rent on Windmill Street.
Brisbane has suffered in recent decades from a relative lack of small tenancies for food and beverage venues. But there can be rich pickings in the old hubs of shops in fringing suburbs such as Tarragindi, which are now being populated by young professionals and families seeking communal spots to eat and drink.
“That’s exactly it,” Wilson says. “That’s the beauty of this space. The build is simple, the rent’s affordable, the landlords are great and the neighbours are really friendly.”
Rabe took care of much of the design, adding a teal timber-panelled frontage that captures the feel of a French wine bar or cafe. Inside, it’s ply walls, timber shelves for the 160 vintages currently on display (Wilson and Okine are hoping to soon push it up to 300), polished concrete floors, and potted plants to add a bucolic touch. In the middle of the space, there’s a communal table designed to let guests interact with each other.
“The other day we had people our age or younger, in their 30s, having an engaged conversation with some couples in their late 50s,” Wilson says. “Everyone’s dogs are bouncing around, and they’re all connecting over the weirdness of the wine, and their shared excitement of where they come from and who they are. That’s a really lovely thing.”
As for the wine, the focus is on minimum intervention drops with a roughly 60-40 split between international and Australian producers.
Wilson has leant on his deep connections both in Australia and abroad to source some heady drops. You might grab a bottle of an earthy, funky Julien Courtois Originel orbois-romorantin blend from the Loire Valley, a herbaceous, amphora-aged rosato from A & C Ainsworth Wines in Daylesford, or a textural, vibrant Gazzetta Rosso Trilli from Australian Trish Nelson’s winery in the Lazio region of Italy.
“We also have wines from Canada – they’re making extraordinary pinots up there – and some stuff from the Czech Republic,” Wilson says. “Just lots of stuff from winemaking regions that often aren’t really considered as being relevant or accessible.”
LPO’s licence means there will be a rotating selection of four white wines and four reds by the glass. And there’s a focus on keeping things affordable, with some bottles going for less than $20 – all the better to make this a neighbourhood destination that locals will return to.
“Everyone’s walked in and said, ‘Wow, f–k, things are really affordable here,’ which is maybe a little concerning,” Wilson says, laughing. “But it’s not only about making money, but also having a good time.”
In future, Wilson and Okine will apply for a change-of-use of their licence, allowing them to convert a back room into a tasting room with a small kitchen.
“At which point, we can extend out front as well and start making other drinks, as you can with those ancillary licences.”
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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.
