Where the garden meets the grill – Rebelo Group opens The Greenhouse in Newstead
Part restaurant, part garden bar and part community hub, The Greenhouse is Rebelo Group’s expansive new addition to Newstead’s waterfront. Anchored by fire-led cooking, biophilic design and a flexible day-to-night offering, the venue has been built to accommodate everything from casual coffees to long-form dining. The result is a hospitality offering that is about atmosphere and connection as much as food and drink.
The Greenhouse can be described as many things, but ask owner Fabian Rebelo how he’d define his latest dining concept and he’ll characterise it more as a ‘social hub’.
As head honcho of Rebelo Group (The Wolf Dining and Stanton Brasserie), Fabian knows a thing or two about the hospitality game. When contemplating what sort of venue to install at the base of Quay Waterfront on Skyring Terrace, the operator settled on the idea of a multi-dimensional venue that catered to just about anything a local could want.
“The points we needed to hit were that the venue wasn’t just a restaurant – it had to have multiple touch points and people could engage with it in a multitude of manners,” says Fabian.
Part slick restaurant, garden bar, brunch destination and takeaway outpost, The Greenhouse ticks a lot of boxes. Defined by fire-led cooking and sculptural architectural flair, the 220-seat venue is positioning itself as a welcoming community anchor for Newstead – a suburb growing exponentially by the month.
Situated at the rear of Quay Waterfront’s ground floor beside a patch of parkland overlooking the Brisbane River, The Greenhouse boasts an enviable location. It’s this proximity to Newstead’s foliage-laden heart that has inspired not only the venue’s name, but also its aesthetic direction.
Acclaimed design principal Melissa Collison collaborated with Rebelo Group on The Greenhouse’s biophilic design scheme, drawing upon the natural elements of its surroundings to blur the line between exterior and interior.
“What was really important for us to nail with this piece, from concept through to execution, was ensuring the design of the venue and the menu flowed with the environment,” explains Fabian. “A lot of the materials are raw – there are a couple of polished areas, but mostly they’re unfinished on the customer side of the venue, so it feels very similar to walking on the path outside.
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“One of the key points of the design brief was bringing the outside inside. The shopfront also has an operable facade, so all of the glass panels fall back into themselves. There are no walls between your dining experience and the environment.”
The Greenhouse’s layout draws inspiration from the flowing waters of the nearby river, with the interior divided into distinct zones geared towards different purposes. A bar area morphs into a central dining space, which flows into a casual lounge area followed by more formal banquette seating at the rear. Guests can also gather on The Water Terrace outside in teardrop-shaped booths ensconced by rippling ponds, with views stretching across the green.
Overseeing The Greenhouse’s kitchen is executive chef Evan White (formerly of Coats Group), who has devised an offering encompassing brunch, lunch, dinner, bar snacks and takeaway fare. After being provided with a broad culinary remit, Evan fleshed out The Greenhouse’s menu with the smoky flavours of charcoal and woodfire cooking.
The kitchen is equipped with an imported French rotisserie, charcoal oven, open-flame grill and woodfired pizza oven – each of which comes to life throughout service.
“My initial starting point was very foundational, and then Evan took it, elaborated on it and added technique and exceptional flavour,” says Fabian. “We’re using solid fuels to cook with – most of the items on those plates are touched by either wood or charcoal before being plated. It just adds a lovely depth of flavour that Evan has managed to infuse through the entire menu.”
Breakfast features luxe dippy eggs with potato foam, chives and truffle salt, eggs Benedict with house-glazed bacon and tarragon hollandaise, crepes with lemon curd and creme patissiere and Steak Royal – a 14-hour slow-cooked rib fillet served with fried eggs, dressed rocket and bearnaise.
The lunch and dinner menus move from raw plates of scallop crudo and beef carpaccio to small plates of chilled prawn cocktails, woodfire-baked beets and smoked lamb-shoulder cigars. From the woodfire grill come butterflied Queensland prawns with habanero vanilla butter, grilled eggplant and sizzling steaks, including a slow-aged wagyu bistecca Florentina, while market fish and yakiniku-style pork tomahawks are cooked in the oven.
Subscribe for updatesThe menu’s centrepieces are the large share-style mains – whole Golden Cockerel Mount Cotton rotisserie chickens, slow-cooked Pyrenees lamb shoulder and dry-aged duck crown.
“The menu will evolve on a weekly or monthly basis, based on seasonality,” says Fabian. “We won’t wait for a date on the calendar to change a menu – if something’s out of season, we’ll just replace that item, recipe or product as we go.”
Those dining at the bar can enjoy woodfired pizzas, charcuterie, rotisserie chicken rolls and wagyu burgers, all of which feature on The Greenhouse’s concise takeaway menu.
The Greenhouse’s beverage program is headlined by a sturdy wine list boasting two pages of vino available by the glass. Fabian estimates the full list is 70 percent French, Italian or Spanish, with the remainder sourced from Australia and New Zealand, while accessibility and approachability remain key to the drinking experience.
“We purposely designed that wine list in a way so that it’s engaging for people – so they can get great quality European wines and Australian wines at an affordable price point,” says Fabian.
To Fabian, the success of The Greenhouse depends on its ability to become a repeat-visit destination for Newstead locals as well as those living nearby. Though it’s only been open a week, the venue has already seen an influx of return custom.
“We’ve been open now for three days, and we’ve seen people come back two to three times,” says Fabian. “We’ve had some people come in for two nights in a row and just order a bottle of wine and sit in the Water Terrace, because that’s what they really enjoy doing.”
As Brisbane’s dining scene, and that of Newstead in particular, continues to evolve, the role of the third space – that go-to destination that isn’t one’s home or workplace – is shifting in tandem. Framing The Greenhouse as a social hub could prove to be a smart long-term play by Fabian and Rebelo Group, particularly as diners increasingly seek venues that prioritise connection as much as consumption.
According to Fabian, that sense of communal experience is ultimately what defines The Greenhouse.
“The first thing that comes to mind is that it feels engaging – something you want to share and experience with other people,” says Fabian. “People are more than welcome to come in and eat or drink on their own, but it’s a really engaged, sharing-forward environment.
“It’s got such a lovely grounded feel to it – there’s lots of laughter, lots of noise, lots of flame. That in itself is something that’s worth being around.”
The Greenhouse is now open to the public – head to The Directory for operating hours, menu info and booking details.
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