Between final fit-out sign-offs, staff training, menu tweaks and systems testing, the week before a restaurant’s opening is chaotic, at the best of times. When your restaurant is part of a high-profile $9-million rejuvenation project aimed at revitalising a heritage-listed Fortitude Valley landmark, things get a lot more complicated and, as you can assume, more stressful. You wouldn’t know it by looking at Alan Hunter and Richard Ousby, though. As director of venue operations and executive chef of Artesian Hospitality’s Fortitude Valley GPO precinct, respectively, the duo have a lot on their plate. But as the first venues get set to open inside the building on Saturday July 8 – elegant two-level restaurant TAMA and upscale cocktail and whisky bar The Gatsby (that’s right, they’re not just opening one concept this weekend, but two) – neither Alan nor Richard are showing signs of fatigue. “It’s a big question,” says Alan, laughing, when we enquire about team morale in the lead-up to GPO’s unveiling. “It’s a massive process of micro task managing – there’s so many things arriving and coming in at once. There is a light at the end of the tunnel where it will all come together at the last moment. We’re close.” When you think about it, it’s no surprise the duo are feeling relaxed. Alan (acclaimed sommelier and former OTTO Brisbane general manager) and Richard (a renowned chef formerly of Stokehouse Melbourne and Brisbane) have worked in plenty of high-pressure venues throughout their careers. Their appointment to important positions at the helm of this ambitious development is no doubt a calculated move on behalf of Artesian’s founder and managing partner Matthew Keegan, whose vision of a multifaceted drinking and dining hub was a key factor in enticing the two hospitality veterans to sign on. “He had an opportunity to spell out the magnitude of this product and got me really interested to do something that has a lot of moving parts,” recalls Alan. “It’s a big project and that’s something that I really saw as a big challenge.” In this instance, big feels like an understatement. TAMA and The Gatsby aren’t the only concepts planned for GPO 2.0 (glamorous old-world bar The Tax Office is slated to open later this year), but as first cabs off the rank, the team is looking to make a good first impression.

Elevated 120-seat restaurant TAMA is a looker – it occupies a portion of the ground floor and a mezzanine level, with soaring ceilings and double-storey windows adding to the impression-making decor of the interior. Working with The Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Brisbane City Council, heritage architects, Zero9 Constructions and Space Cubed Design Studio, the Artesian team has meticulously restored the building’s elegant original elements, imbuing TAMA with a sense of grandeur and comfort (courtesy of soft furnishings, stone and marble flooring, greenery, original beams and custom chandeliers) that matches the structure’s 1887 Victorian Italianate facade. Although TAMA is the jewel in the precinct’s crown, Alan and Richard are hesitant to label the restaurant with the ‘fine dining’ tag. “It’s not fine dining in the sense that there’s white gloves,” says Alan. “There isn’t a degustation menu, it’s an a la carte menu that can also be shared. A lot of the stuffiness that is probably associated with fine dining is not there.”