Gold Coast makes good

Seven years ago when I left Queensland's Gold Coast, where I studied, I left behind a culinary wasteland: milk bars where the air was thick with vaporised fat, fish and chip shops with blue and white-tiled walls grouted deep with nameless gunk, bain-marie Indian, bain-marie Chinese, bain-marie dippy dogs that were three hours - or was it three days? - old.

Salad dressings that rendered lettuce as unhealthy as a deep-fried Mars bar and pasta that waded knee-deep in cream in bowls the size of a semitrailer's hubcaps. Gourmet dining meant a Greek salad with pine nuts - those exotic novelties - that set you back $20 or thereabouts. Every other meal was geared, at least so it seemed at the time, towards cardiac arrest.

Imagine my surprise, then, on returning recently for an extended stay, to find that the wasteland has cleaned itself up. Wherever you look these days, from the brunch-minded cafes and tapas-centric wine bars to the middle and upper-end restaurants that cement a city's gastronomic reputation, the place now resembles, more closely than any of us would have predicted half a decade ago, the country's culinary capitals.

How did this happen? What has changed?

For barista Brendan Elcham, owner of Canteen Coffee in Burleigh Heads, the answer is simple: customer expectations and a growing dissatisfaction among locals with the region's reputation for tastelessness.

"Coffee on the Gold Coast used to mean a scalding hot latte in a pint-sized glass with a paper doily," says Elcham, who opened Canteen in August 2011. "When I used to tell people five years ago I was a barista, their response would often be, 'What type of law do you specialise in?' "

Now, he says, the Gold Coast boasts many skilled baristas and roasters who have recognised the demand for speciality. "I believe one of the greatest contributions to the local scene is the migration of southerners who are bringing with them an appreciation for quality coffee."

Indeed, tucked away in a sun-dappled arcade and serving up single-origin roasts from both the usual and some rather more unusual suspects - Indian beans, anyone? - Canteen sooner calls to mind Flinders Lane or Surry Hills than it does its actual location.

"There's a movement of people who are fed up with the tacky, glitzy and shallow stigma associated with the Gold Coast," Elcham says. "And that's helping to drive the changes."

Simon Gloftis, who ran local cafes Three Beans, Little Beans and Piccolo before opening Greek restaurant Hellenika (a Weekend Australian Hot 50 Queensland inclusion in 2012) at Nobbys Beach and the Fish House at Burleigh Heads, says his customers' growing sophistication is just as self-evident at the restaurant level.

"You can't take short cuts in the restaurant game here any more," Gloftis says. "Our patrons have become too smart, too informed."

True. One visit to Hellenika is usually enough to inspire a second, and a third. The smart neighbourhood eatery attracts a fiercely loyal clientele, revelling in chef Bryan Kelly's refined-but-not-rarefied evocation of the Greek taverna in an inviting, contemporary space with a big timber bar.

Some of the most dramatic changes in the Gold Coast scene are happening in hotel restaurants. Jupiters Hotel & Casino, QT Gold Coast, Sea Temple and Surfers Paradise Hilton are all riding the new wave of popularity for hotel dining, splashing big money on fitouts and hiring name chefs in a bid to lure the cosmopolitan Gold Coast diner. At Jupiters at Broadbeach, a much needed $350 million refurb has barely begun, but the soft relaunch earlier this year of two restaurants at the complex - the mid-priced Italian Osteria Vivo and the modern fine diner Entwine - is already upping the ante. According to hospitality general manager Damon Page, "We're seeing a new customer base: travellers from Sydney and Melbourne who've found they don't have to compromise their dining standards just because they're on the Gold Coast."

More new restaurants will open as part of the revamp, and Page says the hunt has begun for an international celebrity chef to bring the casino into dining's big league.

Over in Surfers Paradise, QT Gold Coast is packing them in at Bazaar, a 240-seat interactive buffet with a farmhouse-meets-resort fitout and very good food from executive chef Luke Stepsys, formerly of Wildfire in Sydney, and his merry team of helpers.

For Luke Mangan, who opened Salt Grill in the Surfers Paradise Hilton in 2011, the decision to team up with the hotel chain for a second time, following the success of Sydney's Glass Brasserie, was not a difficult one.

"The Gold Coast is establishing itself in a very positive way," he says.

"Things are definitely heading in the right direction. There is some terrific talent in the region," he adds, pointing to the success of Kelly at Hellenika, Steve Szabo at Seaduction (at Sea Temple) and Damien Draper at MooMoo Wine Bar & Grill, among others.

"These are chefs who have set new expectations for the standard of the dining experience up here," Mangan says.

As a result of these expectations, he says, "I don't really believe there is a significant difference between our Sydney and Gold Coast clientele".

For my money, Salt Grill loses out to Glass only when it comes to the view. The face of Gold Coast dining may be changing, but the face of Surfers Paradise remains made up in badly applied lipstick and running mascara: the fading facade of The Sands holiday apartment block is no Queen Victoria Building.

But looking down from the window to the plate - where an excellent steak tartare, or roast pork belly with licorice jus, awaits - the difference is all but irrelevant. From the bain-marie it ain't.

While pleased with the direction in which the Gold Coast's food, wine and coffee scenes are moving, Mangan, Gloftis and Elcham all agree there's room for improvement in some areas.

"I would like to see more small restaurants and tapas and wine bars pop up," Mangan says, "managed by young, up-and-coming chefs who can showcase their talents and Queensland's produce in fresh ways."

Gloftis agrees. "While big-name restaurants and restaurateurs certainly do give a city's dining scene stature," he says, "what I would like to see is the emergence of more neighbourhood eateries, hopefully influenced by the region's ethnic community. If this happens, the local dining scene could become only more vibrant."

The main point remains unavoidable, however, and is perfectly summed up by Elcham.

"The Gold Coast is starting to shift from the tourist-driven dining experiences to a more genuine, authentic experience," he says.

"What we're seeing is a resurgence of soul within a city that for so long has been seen as lacking one."

Additional reporting by Necia Wilden

Source: The Australian, 12 January 2013