Harun Gencerler | The Weekend Edition

Harun Gencerler, Restaurateur, Next Door Kitchen & Bar

To every problem there is a solution ...

An elegant new watering hole is set to grace the streets of South Bank next month, creating a space for relaxed afternoon drinks accompanied by flavoursome foodstuffs. Next Door Kitchen & Bar is the latest creation of the folk behind Ahmet’s Turkish Restaurant and Olé, and will be nestled between the two when it opens in December. A wine bar with an emphasis on shared dining, Next Door Kitchen & Bar will serve up old-style cocktails, craft beers and a succinct wine list that nods to the 1920s. Designed by Arkhefield – who also did the impressive fit-outs at Stokehouse and Olé – Next Door will feature notes of blacks, charcoals and orange amongst its interior, with touches of timber and mirror detailing. The menu will see local produce fashioned into dishes such as whiskey beef cheeks, blue cheese arancini and pulled duck leg, while head chef Dean Brewer’s grandmother has lent her 1926 pineapple upside-down cake recipe, enhancing the neighbourly ambience to this latest epicurean venture. The Weekend Edition caught up with one of the masterminds behind Next Door Kitchen & Bar Harun Gencerler to chat weekend essentials.

By Linsey Rendell

How do you like to start your weekend?
With Friday afternoon drinks with friends.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Saturday morning?
Breakfast with mates at Bulimba.

How do you like to unwind?
Motor-racing via competing or watching. My hobbie is racing cars.

What are your essentials for a well-spent weekend?
Alcohol, beach, motor-racing.

What’s something you’ve been meaning to do on the weekend but haven’t got around to yet?
Finishing off my race-car build.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday evening?
Going to the cinema or New Farm Park.

What are you looking forward to next weekend?
Taking my new boat out on to the water and going to Tangalooma.

What are you reading at the moment?
Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School by Richard Branson.

What inspires you?
Successful life stories where people have created a better life by commitment and hard work and have created their own luck. I don’t believe in luck falling in front of you. You have to create your own luck. People like Richard Branson, Martin Luther King, Jnr, Muhammad Ali and Michael Schumacher to name a few.

What was your childhood dream?
To race cars and become jet fighter pilot.

What has been your greatest achievement?
Ahmet’s Turkish Restaurant at South Bank.

What is success to you?
Achieving the goals I’ve set, personally and in my business.

What are your words of wisdom?
Nothing is impossible; everything is possible. To every problem there is a solution.

Only a local would know … Brisbane was hurt a lot by the 2011 floods.

FAVOURITE WEEKEND SPOT TO:
Perk up … Broadbeach
Relax … South Bank
Dine … Olé, South Bank
Indulge … Max Brenner
Shop … Sydney
Catch-up … in Bulimba