Most rooftop boozers are huge, but not this one. A celebrated chef and award-winning bartender are onboard, and guests can expect live entertainment four nights a week.
When Daniel Sprange arrived in Brisbane six months ago, he noticed something about the city’s rooftop bars – they tended to be huge.
“For someone from Sydney, Brisbane does them a bit differently,” Sprange says. “Something like Lina [in South Brisbane] or Sunsets [in Woolloongabba] – to me, it’s a unique concept to walk into a corporate or residential building, and you’re on the hunt for it. Then you get up to the rooftop and it’s this wide open space.”
Not every rooftop bar in Brisbane is built to such scale, of course. And what Sprange is talking about isn’t confined to rooftops, with Brisbane having history of leaning towards larger food and beverage tenancies, whether they’re on the ground or top floor.
But that’s another conversation for another story.
Either way, he says, Above will be different. Set to open in mid-October on the seventh-floor rooftop of Ovolo The Valley, where Sprange is general manager, the 60-seat Above is intended to be intimate and personable.
Not that Sprange takes credit for the conception of Above, which began during the time of his predecessor, James Clark.
The hotel group has been developing it for about a year, and hopes it will bolster the hotel’s food and beverage options after the May closure of Za Za Ta to make room for functions and events.
“We have our brand pillars at Ovolo and food and beverage is a big component of that,” Sprange says. “We still have [bar] Kazba downstairs but this will help elevate us and set us apart [among our competitors].
“The current set-up up there was a small gym and a sauna and then the rooftop pool. We wanted to bring something to that space, to the hotel and to the community, so we thought, why not activate it?”
In charge of the redesign is BSPN Architecture, which has been tasked with adding plenty of textured elements and greenery. The pool is also in the process of being retiled.
“We’re giving the tiles a speckled blue treatment, and we hope it will add up to something that gives a Mediterranean feel. There will be a lot of sensory elements, with rendered sand-style walls. It’s designed to reflect the great light we get up there and add to that intimacy.”
For food, celebrated consulting chef Justin North and head chef Kya Knights have collaborated on a grazing menu that takes the Middle Eastern focus of Kazba and Za Za Ta before it but shifts ever so slightly eastwards towards the Mediterranean. Expect dishes such as stone baked pita with linseed and garlic oil, an “old-school hummus with crunchy chilli oil, beetroot served with a bulgar spread, and crudite vegetables with tahini yoghurt, soy and spiced pepitas.
For drinks, award-winning bartender Jake Down is compiling a cocktail list that for the most part will twist the classics, but also include original drinks and a couple of more refined takes on the rooftop slushy. There will be a focus throughout the list on showcasing Brisbane produce.
The final element, Sprange says, will be live entertainment four nights a week.
“Yes, we’re a hotel but we can’t stand on our own two feet without the support of the local community. There’s a lot of residential around here but also businesses, and we wanted to give them something that they want.
“It’s on the fringe of the Valley and it’s somewhere they can wind down and enjoy something different, and something different from our hotel.”
Above will open October 17 at Ovolo The Valley, 33/1000 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley
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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.
