The old Merivale apartments are being transformed into a 110-seat venue that features nine distinct dining and bar areas.
If Central in Queen Street was Fanda’s love letter to Hong Kong, Marlowe is shaping up as its ode to Brisbane.
The restaurant group, best known for Rick Shores in Burleigh Heads and Southside in Brisbane, will open this 110-seater on Melbourne Street in South Brisbane in late September.
And it knows how to do this. Beyond Central, Rick Shores and Southside, Fanda also operates Norte and Sueno in Mermaid Beach. All were if not exceptional when they opened, then very close to it.
But co-owner David Flynn will tell you Marlowe is different. Or the challenges in making Marlowe have been different, anyway.
“The main factor is it’s a beautiful, heritage-listed apartment block,” Flynn says. “And it’s this repurposing of the space. What used to be bedrooms are now going to be dining areas.
“This is the first site we’ve been involved in that has such a big heritage overlay, and that has been a factor that’s impacted on the timeline.”
Marlowe occupies the old Merivale apartment block, built in 1938. It’s a prominent example of Brisbane functionalist design of the period. There’s a lot of history to preserve, and that led to a lot of delays, meaning Marlowe will open 18 months after Fanda intended.
“It was a little frustrating,” Flynn says. “But it actually worked in our favour. We’ve had a lot of time to really go into the detail. We managed to fit in a few more research trips, to Hong Kong, Singapore and a few Sydney trips.”
“We definitely feel a sense of [stewardship]. It’s a heritage building so it’s nice that … a lot of people get to experience it.”
David Flynn
If Merivale looks different from the street, it’s because architects Twohill & James stripped away much of the paint and rendering on the outside of the building to reveal its original brickwork. The results are striking; it’s like seeing the building for the first time.
Inside, regular collaborator Jared Webb of J.AR OFFICE is working to retain much of the character of the original two-level apartments, creating nine distinct dining and bar spaces, a terrace lined with greenery, and four enclosed sunrooms; expect walnut timber, polished chrome and a sky blue, buttercream and deep crimson colour palette.
“We definitely feel a sense of [stewardship],” Flynn says. “It’s a heritage building so it’s nice that it’s being utilised in such a way that a lot of people get to experience it.”
For a venue so invested in its sense of place, chef and co-owner Ollie Hansford is creating a menu that takes a deeper dive than most into local produce. That 18-month delay allowed the seasoned chef, best known in Brisbane for his time leading the kitchen at Stokehouse Q before he opened Siffredi’s (both now closed) in Teneriffe in 2020, to dig up suppliers only he now has access to.
“Instead of focusing on getting the basic stuff ready for the opening, I had time to develop those connections,” Hansford says.
The menu will feature 20-week chickens from Joyce’s Gold Heritage Chicken, citrus-fed wagyu from Elbow Valley Beef, west of Brisbane, and seafood from Cherax Park Aquaculture north of Gympie.
Hansford’s kitchen will use a mix of woodfire and induction to punch out dishes such as a coral trout Wellington, and a twist on the traditional prawn cocktail, and a sweet-and-tangy trifle built on rhubarb jelly and macadamia sponge.
“We’ve been researching dishes that were very famous at the time the apartments were built,” Hansford says. “But we always want to give it a modern touch.”
For drinks, group wine director Peter Marchant is compiling a 150-bottle list that’s entirely Australian-sourced apart from its champagnes. There will also be a cocktail list that keeps it classic to fit in with the venue’s theme, but uses native Australian ingredients where possible.
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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.
