‘It’s sad. It’s bittersweet. But it’s right’: James St icon to close

One of Brisbane’s most celebrated modern restaurants, Gerard’s, will close permanently, with the James Street institution’s final service on July 4.

Owner Johnny Moubarak announced the news to staff in a meeting on Tuesday morning and told this masthead later in the day that there was no one reason for the closure. The restaurant had been trading relatively strongly, and Moubarak wouldn’t have entertained a sale unless the right buyer – an as-yet-undisclosed operator – hadn’t popped up.

“It’s been 14 years and I’ve had an amazing run,” he said. “I have worked with some superstars. But I’ve other interests, and when the opportunity came up, we’d maybe been turning it over for a while and I think it was time.

“For me, it’s all about taking a break. I have so many things going on, I just need to park hospitality for a bit. It’s like emptying the trash and updating the operating system.”

It’s difficult to overstate the impact Gerard’s has had on Brisbane’s dining scene since it opened in 2012.

Firstly, it was under chef Ben Williamson, who soon after taking over the kitchen began to bypass its gas equipment to cook on hibachi grills and eventually install a coal-fired hearth to implement a fire-forward style of cooking inspired by his years working in Bahrain for Gulf Air.

It was under Williamson’s direction that Gerard’s muscled its way to national relevance, becoming one of the calling cards for the rise of Brisbane dining as a whole.

When he departed in December 2018 to open Agnes and become co-owner and culinary director of what is now known as Anyday, many diners assumed the restaurant’s best years were behind it. But in one of modern hospitality’s great clutch moves, Moubarak managed to hire Adam Wolfers, then celebrated in Sydney for his cooking at restaurants such as Est., Marque, Monopole, the plant-based Yellow, and his Middle Eastern-inflected Etelek pop-up.

Wolfers revised the menu slightly towards plant-based dishes and, in the process, kicked off a second golden era for the restaurant. He was also responsible for Gerard’s innovative COVID-era take-away menu, which meant so much to so many diners across the city in those early lockdown-laden months of the pandemic.

The restaurant continued to evolve in more recent years. Its 2023 rammed-earth refurbishment was the first major hospitality project of J.AR OFFICE, Jared Webb’s now multi-award-winning architecture and design practice, with chef Jimmy Richardson keeping the fire-forward approach but steering the menu back towards meat proteins.

“My brother and I were texting today and I said, ‘How the f–k am I going to stay away from this thing?’”

Johnny Moubarak

The restaurant’s talent for gentle reinvention was so established by this point, it was easy to imagine it lasting long into the future. Moubarak says calling time is bittersweet.

“We were trading OK – it’s been a tough time for hospitality – but then our last few weeks or last month have been great,” he said. “And that’s always been the way with Gerard’s – you have tough years but then you have great years after that.

“But I have to stop. I haven’t stopped for 30 years.”

Despite its evolution over the years, the through line of inspiration for Gerard’s has always been the cooking of Moubarak’s mother, Salwa Moubarak. How has she taken the news?

“She’s excited for me,” he said. “She just wants me to chill. She’s my best friend.

“But I’m proud of what we achieved over 14 years. Gerard’s is the people you work with, the people you meet, the diners who supported you, which has been so humbling.

“My brother and I were texting today and I said, ‘How the f–k am I going to stay away from this thing?’ I feel traumatised, but I think I’ll get trauma being away from hospitality.

“It’s a little sad. It’s bittersweet. But it’s the right time.”