Local legends – how Hello Please grew from shipping container to Fish Lane institution
Ten years of flavour, friendship and Fish Lane – Hello Please is celebrating a decade of serving up its distinctive take on modern Asian fare. From its humble beginnings in a shipping container to its evolution into a laneway mainstay, the eatery has weathered plenty of change along the way. Now, as it enters its second decade, it’s still got plenty to say.
Just over a week ago, Hello Please celebrated a massive milestone – ten years of operation. To mark the occasion, the team threw a party, with bodies congregating in the heart of Fish Lane to raise a few Aperols to the achievement.
At the centre of the buzzing shindig was co-owner Maris Cook, who was pulled this way and that throughout the night by regulars and industry friends, all eager to share their congratulations and reminisce on highlights from the decade that was.
“Having that many people show up was pretty cool,” says Maris. “It was great seeing the amount of people that just love Hello Please and love that we’ve done well.”
Ten years is an incredible innings, especially in an industry as volatile as hospitality. Maris will be the first to tell you it wasn’t a cruisy decade, but when the operator sits down with The Weekend Edition to chat about the eatery’s history so far, he can’t help but talk about the good bits.
One of Fish Lane’s OG operators, Hello Please opened in August 2016 at a time when the precinct was still in its infancy, joining the likes of Julius Pizzeria and Maker as anchor tenants of the laneway’s Grey Street end.
Originally housed in a shipping container (with alfresco seating confined to a cluster of picnic tables illuminated by festoon lighting), the concept was envisioned almost as a testing ground.
A three-year lease ahead of further laneway development of its corner site (now home to Bar Brutus) meant that Hello Please wasn’t a long-term idea. At least, not initially – but Hello Please quickly caught on with locals, thanks to its flavour-packed take on Vietnamese-inspired fare.
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Maris chalks much of the early success up to the impact of co-owner and executive chef Jesse Stevens.
“The guy could just cook,” gushes Maris. “He was really making a name for himself with Vietnamese flavours.”
Despite its no-frills setting, Hello Please remained a popular destination among the pre- and post-theatre crowd. Its combination of approachability, a well-pitched menu of street eats (including crunchy banh mis, crispy pork-belly baos, handmade dumplings and DIY pork pancakes) and a tight selection of new-wave wines and tinned local beers made it a standout addition to the laneway.
“Vietnamese flavours get done well all over the city, but perhaps having a fast-paced eatery at that stage – one that did Vietnamese flavours in conjunction with a booze list – was why it went gangbusters,” Maris hypothesises.
By all metrics, Hello Please was a success. When the venue’s lease ended, ARIA Property Group wasted no time offering the crew (who had since opened Maeve Wine nearby) a cosy space on the junction of Fish Lane and Hope Street.
With a much bigger kitchen and dining space to work with, Maris and Jesse sank their teeth into the process of making Hello Please a more mature concept. Though the venue was well regarded for its Vietnamese-inspired eats, the duo made the decision to broaden its scope – expanding the culinary remit to include Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai flavours.
Subscribe for updates“We weren’t sure whether maybe we should start something different,” says Maris of the move and change in direction. “We’d had conversations about it, but we had such a strong following.
“I believe Vietnamese food deserves the [restaurant] price point, but I think people weren’t used to spending top dinner prices for it, so we sort of made a change to modern Asian.”
Reopening in late 2019, Hello Please wasted no time endearing itself to a new wave of diners with dishes like Korean beef tartare, Chinese bolognese, soy-roasted duck leg, Hainanese chicken salad and Xinjiang cumin lamb ribs.
That menu has evolved further, now featuring plates of tuna tostada with gochujang creme, prawn toastie with yuzu mayo, kimchi porchetta, market fish crudo with laksa dressing and bay lobster dumplings swimming in fermented chilli butter.
“[Jesse and I] still talk about food every day,” says Maris. “His partner Raewyn also works with us – we see each other more than our families, so we’re really close.”
And while the venue now resembles a chic bar and bistro, it still evokes the come-as-you-are approachability of its previous guise, with Maris’ own take on service enduring as a linchpin of its appeal.
“There’s a personal approach to it,” says Maris. “If the customer can see that you’re thinking about their experience rather than sales points or whatever, then life’s easy.”
In the years since its relocation, Hello Please has navigated pandemics and cost-of-living crises alongside hospo’s usual ebbs and flows. These days, the restaurant is considered a pillar of the lane, sitting alongside Julius and Maker – as well as newer venues like Southside, Lune, Chu the Phat, Clarence, Marlowe, La Lune, Saccharomyces Beer Cafe and Hotel Terminus – as key members of one of Brisbane’s best dining precincts.
Before Maris cut the ribbon on Hello Please’s original shipping container digs, he worked across the strip at Julius. Even in those nascent days, he could tell that Fish Lane held promise.
“I saw how many people we would serve at Julius before adding its outdoor area, and there’d be 70 people just hanging around waiting,” recalls Maris. “Even though we weren’t sure how big Fish Lane was going to become, I could see the potential.”
With more development on the way, coupled with recent additions to South Bank’s Cultural Centre, the future is bright for Hello Please and Fish Lane as a whole.
“Having big restaurants pop up around you and still having the support on the laneway – it means a lot,” says Maris. “There’s a friendly relationship between our neighbours, including anyone that’s new.”
No matter how the laneway evolves, there’s something reassuring about knowing that at Hello Please you’ll always receive a warm greeting. If there’s any secret to long-term success, that has to be part of it.
For operating hours and booking info, find Hello Please in The Directory.
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