Grantz Dining Room brings a little old-school theatre back to Southport

Some opportunities are simply impossible to refuse. For Grant and Antz, this was one of them. When Azzura Investments founder Roberto Badalotti came knocking with a significant proposition, it was enough to change their course. This wasn’t simply another restaurant. It was the chance to take the reins of hospitality and food and beverage across Azzura’s growing portfolio, beginning with a brand-new dining room in Southport.

Sitting at the base of TRYP by Wyndham Southport within Azzura’s ambitious Imperial Square development, Grantz Dining Room is the first taste of this new chapter. The restaurant also marks something of a return to the kind of hospitality Grant and Antz love – generous, old-school service, tableside theatre and a sense that going out for dinner should feel like an occasion.

Beyond Grantz, the opportunity gets considerably bigger. Imperial Square’s first stage is complete, while the 40-level Monarch Place is currently under construction as stage two of the four-stage masterplan. As the precinct comes to life, Grant and Antz will have a hand in its hospitality offering, including a poolside restaurant, 540-seat ballroom and room service across the buildings. Their remit will also extend to Azzura hospitality projects beyond the Gold Coast.

For now, though, Grantz has their full attention.

Taking over the former Amore restaurant at the base of TRYP, Grantz is certainly not short on room. The restaurant sprawls across approximately 1000 sqm and can accommodate up to 400 guests, with a stage bringing live entertainment into the centre of the dining room.

The name itself is a culmination of Grant and Antz, but it’s Grant’s lengthy culinary career that shapes what’s coming from the kitchen. This September will mark 49 years since Grant first stepped into a professional kitchen, a career that has taken him through luxury hotels and superyachts as well as acclaimed Gold Coast restaurants including Artichoke at Ephraim Island and Sanctuary Cove.

At Grantz, the food leans modern Australian, with European and Asian influences woven throughout and a few favourites from River House making the move. The expansive menu jumps from oysters and sashimi to Bangalow Forest pork belly, slipper-lobster tortellini and Wagyu, alongside XL barbecued Moreton Bay bugs with lemon beurre blanc, Junee lamb cutlets and a chateaubriand carved at the table.

But if there’s one way Grant wants you to experience the restaurant, it’s Trust the Chef.

The five-course degustation is Grantz’s signature and the place where Grant’s daily specials now live. He still heads to the markets and fish markets himself, allowing what he finds that morning to influence what appears throughout the experience that evening.

For Antz, however, Trust the Chef is about more than handing over the ordering.

“Trust the Chef lets Grant do what he truly loves to do, which is just come out to the table and blow you away with his food,” Antz says.

That interaction is a big part of the appeal. Grant steps out of the kitchen to talk diners through what he’s serving, while tableside cookery turns the five courses into something that unfolds around you rather than simply arriving from the pass.

“To share a plate of food for me is the hugest honour,” Grant says.

After almost five decades in kitchens, Grant also has the experience to change course when needed, with Trust the Chef able to be tailored around different dietary requirements rather than offering a completely separate experience.

The theatre isn’t confined to the degustation. Sashimi and steak tartare are among the dishes already being prepared tableside, alongside liqueur coffees, and there’s considerably more planned as Grantz evolves.

Over the coming weeks, the 1000 sqm dining room will undergo a major transformation while remaining open. The new-look space will lean into timber and black finishes and introduce three live seafood tanks for lobster, mud crab and coral trout, alongside a dry-ageing room. Port and cognac trolleys and a dedicated dessert trolley are also part of the plan, adding another layer of interaction to the dining room.

For Antz, it all comes back to creating something that goes beyond simply putting good food on the table.

“The theatre of dining. That experiential dining. It’s everything that is above and beyond politely getting good food or great food to a table,” Antz says.

It’s the combination of food, service, music and interaction that the pair hopes will stay with diners long after they leave.

“You have to leave a footprint forever. Not just for one night,” Antz says. “So the lighting, the music, the theatre. When you combine all of it together, you have a pretty extraordinary venue. You have an experience.”

Grantz marks the beginning of a much larger chapter for Grant and Antz at Imperial Square, but it also signals a return to the kind of hospitality the pair believes diners are craving. With live music, tableside cookery, trolleys rolling through the dining room and a chef who happily steps out from behind the pass to chat with diners, Grantz is bringing a sense of occasion back to dinner.

Head to The Directory for opening times.