It’s turning the old Campos and City Winery space into a moody, semi-hidden diner that serves everything from traditional Peking duck to a dan dan ragu.
There was an inevitability about the rumours that spread through the food and industry late last year that Michael Tassis had taken on the old City Winery spot on Wandoo Street.
Who else to score a rare vacant tenancy in the wider James Street precinct than the prolific restaurateur who in the previous 18 months had opened no fewer than four eateries? (and meanwhile has gone on to open four more, Stilts and Mulga Bills on the Kangaroo Point Bridge, and Pompette and Dark Shepherd at Queen’s Wharf)
But it also made sense. By now this is a bit of a storied spot, once being home to Campos’ heaving Brisbane outpost, but it’s also a tricky one: City Winery, for all its potential, was a venue that never really hit its stride (although the pandemic didn’t help). Tassis was someone who could make it work, as long as he had the right concept.
But what concept?
“We debated doing a bunch of cuisines in the space, including Greek,” says the restaurateur, who is best known for his Hellenic cuisine. “But we didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. There’s so much around here and you want to do something that works from a community standpoint.”
The answer was a Cantonese restaurant, Aunty, that will open towards the end of the year.
Tassis says he’s tasked regular design collaborators Clui with “mixing up” their usual design cues in a moody, modular dining room.
Aunty won’t have any outside dining, leaning instead into a hidden, “mysterious” vibe – a clever move for a restaurant that will sit just off the strip and carry with it that sense of discovery.
For food, head chef Salvatore de Ponte will be cooking a menu that’s based in Cantonese food but also draws inspiration from other cuisines, including his native Italian. Tassis says diners can expect everything from a traditional half-Peking duck to housemade dan dan ragu.
“We’re going to be cooking with a lot of woodfire,” he says. “And we’re looking at using different types of lamb and seafood to what you might usually find in Cantonese coking. It should evoke that soul and memory [of Cantonese], but people shouldn’t expect traditional Cantonese.”
For drinks, sommelier Ben Rolfe is compiling a list heavy on white wines and champagne that have enough acidity to match the spice of the food.
“It’s almost an iconic space these days,” Tassis says. “So we’re going to give this a good crack, a great fit-out and a different vibe. We’re trying to create another great place that fits into that James Street dining scene.”
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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.
