Bye Bye Bretts Wharf in Brisbane

[markis10]

Sad news today that Bretts Wharf will close early next year, one of my favorites when it came to corporate functions and a restaurant that captured the essence of Brisbane, I am very sad to see it going:

[FONT=&quot]We wanted you to hear this from us first. We have some sad news for you…today we are announcing that Bretts Wharf will be closing its doors on 26 January 2012.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The land on which Bretts sits has been resumed by Brisbane City Council to make way for road improvements to Kingsford-Smith Drive. As you may have heard, plans for future development have been on the table, then off the table, and now we have recently learned back on the table again (very frustrating!).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Of course you will still be able to visit us at our new restaurant – Tank Restaurant and Bar (click here to subscribe) in the city, and we have the next 10 months to enjoy Bretts Wharf. I hope to see you here many times over that time (by the way Bretts is open on all the public holidays with no surcharges!). [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]My promise to you is that I am determined to ensure that from now till Australia Day 2012 the quality of food, service and lovely ambience of Bretts Wharf will be maintained to the highest standard right up until last drinks are called. My amazing team and I have worked so hard to provide a great restaurant, function room and off-site catering service providing excellence, and that is how we want you to remember Bretts Wharf.

[/FONT]

 

[Cafe Specific]

I was wondering how the council was going to widen Kingsford Smith Drive, especially with all the high-rises going up... now I know!

 

[Taezar]

Maybe I will be able to ride along KSD without fear of death. Like to see more CityCat terminals go in ASAP - they are on the "plan."

 

[medhead]

Given the location there is no logic reason that bretts wharf needs to go in order to widen kingsford smith drive. There is a significant section to the west, back towards breakfast creek that cannot be widen. (so death on a push bike is still a risk) Unless they build into the river, or wipe out a few house on top of a cliff. Then just to the east of bretts wharf there is a building that effectively limits the amount of widening upto that point, the shed thing next to Hamilton park. Much better to widen east of harbour road.

Any widening is only going to be useful upto southern cross motorway anyway. And it will make bugger all difference because the bottle neck along the river will still slow everyone down. Besides the biggest problem is the stupidly slow speed limits travelling to the west there is little reason that it couldn't be 70 from the Hamo to Cooksley St or even the ICB

 

[markis10]

Given the location there is no logic reason that bretts wharf needs to go in order to widen kingsford smith drive. There is a significant section to the west, back towards breakfast creek that cannot be widen. (so death on a push bike is still a risk) Unless they build into the river, or wipe out a few house on top of a cliff. Then just to the east of bretts wharf there is a building that effectively limits the amount of widening upto that point, the shed thing next to Hamilton park. Much better to widen east of harbour road.

Have you looked at the plans??

• Option 1 - retaining wall in the river, upgrade to six lanes. Estimated cost - $850 million
• Option 2 - partial upgrade in sections, upgrade to six lanes. Estimated cost - $255 million
• Option 3 - elevated structure over the river, upgrade to six lanes. Estimated cost - $1.35 billion
• Option 4 - double-storey tunnel, upgrade to eight lanes. Estimated cost - $3.2 billion
• Option 5 - side-by-side tunnel, upgrade to eight lanes. Estimated cost - $2.43 billion

 

[medhead]

Have you looked at the plans??

What and make an informed comment? Of course not

Looking at those options I would guess only 1 and 2 have a chance based on price. 2 will still have bottle necks, 1 still has a problem with hamiliton park and the shed thing next to it.
A lot of options for multiple lanes and I bet they are still going to have a 60kph speed limit. And they still won't enforce keep left unless overtaking. After spending a week driving around up there some of the speed limits are just stupid. 60 on the storey bridge! And that is the real problem.

 

[markis10]

I think they are hoping airport link will take most of the traffic, I just wish they would hurry up, if I had a $1 for every concrete truck that passed my office in Albion I would not need to be at the office! Wonder if we should organise an AFF do at Bretts, maybe an AFF Xmas party?

 

[docjames]

What and make an informed comment? Of course not

.

Do you work for news ltd?

 

[medhead]

I think they are hoping airport link will take most of the traffic, I just wish they would hurry up, if I had a $1 for every concrete truck that passed my office in Albion I would not need to be at the office! Wonder if we should organise an AFF do at Bretts, maybe an AFF Xmas party?

Well it is the missing link between the ICB and gateway/southern cross to the airport. I'm not sure what is airport link, the fly over that joins on to Sandgate Road? As an alternative Sandgate Road is even worse. I gotta say they seem to be getting some extremely poor roads advice, starting with the genius who came up with the idea to put traffic lights on the round about at the start of the (old) airport access road. another rant is the current airport access road speed limit - 90kph, look at that thing 4+ lanes what is wrong with 110?

Anyway, I'd better shut up.
A Christmas do at Brett's Wharf sounds like a great idea.

 

[markis10]

The new flyover is part of airportlink which mostly is a tunnel that will start at the end of that flyover, head over to Kedron then pop out near the ICB/Clem 7 at Bowen Hills.

 

[medhead]

Thanks for the explanation. Sounds good. I still like the storey bridge of course.

 

[Mr_Gimlet]

Oh, the closure is disappointing. I really liked having lunch there on the way to the airport - they may have a new place, but I will miss the pelicans.

 

[drron]

We had lunch there last week.really enjoyed it.will have to fit a few more in in the next 6 months.
Let us know if there will be an AFF function.

 

[markis10]

Looks like it could not be revived, had lunch there recently as well as dinner a few months back and it was not up to standard. While sad in a way to see it go, I suspect its for the best!

It is with tremendous sadness that I have to tell you that the owners of Bretts Wharf announced today that we will be closing the doors at Bretts Wharf on 2 September 2012.
Tank Restaurant and Bar, which has a different ownership structure to Bretts Wharf, is completely unaffected by the closure of Bretts Wharf and continues to do well. Similarly Baguette Restaurant is unaffected and continues to do well.
To explain in brief what has happened; the business had been doing very well but suffered a mortal blow in March 2011 when we announced that the Brisbane City Council had resumed the land on which we sit. This forced us to cancel all confirmed bookings after January 2012 and to turn away about $2 million worth of future function and catering business for 2012 and beyond. Then, in late November 2011, just 8 weeks before we were set to close, came the news that the council had changed its mind about Kingsford Smith Drive and we now wouldn’t need to close.
Sadly, the blow by Council meant that we were in the unenviable position of remaining open with the same massive running costs but with a significant part of our business (the functions and catering) being removed. Without sufficient forward bookings to offset costs, we now cannot remain trading.