Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Café Bravo is not only one of Gallery Walk’s best eateries, but a striking feast for the eyes, too. The story behind its style is as rich as the food, and manager Sylvia Jess has that and more to share with us.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How did you get started at Café Bravo?
Initially the business was owned by George from George’s Paragon, and he set it up as a Greek business, as you can see from some of the décor we still have. He planted the olive trees, and that was a big attraction for the Europeans initially. But then the current owners took over and it became more of an Australian menu, though we didn’t change the décor as the outside setting seems to attract a lot of people. We get heaps of buses every day, and I think it’s the eye attraction that draws people in. We’ve tried to make it pretty, we have a really nice cake cabinet, a good menu and great chefs in the kitchen, and we are busy every day.
So you have an ‘Australian menu’? Is that how you would describe your style of cuisine?
At the moment, yes, it is Australian. We had an English chef who set up the menu and she’s since left, but we’ve kept her menu since it’s so popular. Burgers, fish and chips, arrangements of salads, gluten and dairy-free options, vegetarian… we try to suit all types of people since we get multicultural bus tours and tourists. Japanese tourists don’t come looking for Japanese food.
Where do you source your ingredients from?
Mostly from the Gold Coast and Brisbane. All the fruit and veg we get from up here, and fresh eggs. We do try to source locally. All our avocados are from the avocado farm behind the winery, and they’re just beautiful. A lot of our dishes contain avocado because they’re so popular.
Do you have a particular signature or bestselling dish?
Our salads are really popular. We have the Moroccan spiced chicken salad, and the marinated chicken is just the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I recommend it quite a lot, because I love it so much. For vegetarians, the pumpkin and beetroot salad just walks out the door, and the pumpkins and beetroots are from the mountain. The burgers are really popular with younger people. On the weekend, families come in and with all the teenagers we just sell hundreds of burgers. We have sliders, like mini burgers, and those are really popular and a little bit different. Our chefs are particularly good at breakfasts. You go to a lot of places whose breakfasts are just slapped on the plate, but ours are really good, like the eggs benedict. Most times when I bring one out, the presentation wows people. Our girls in the kitchen are amazing.
Are there any particular trends in your clientele?
Lots of very large families, I believe they’re all local. Other than that, it’s mostly tourists, though a lot of locals come in as well. I’ve been here for 9 years so they all know us and they’ll call in for a chat and a coffee. We’ve really built that up. We deliver to all the shops as well, so when the phone rings at lunch time we’ll be running up and down with coffee, cakes and lunch to all the shops on Gallery Walk.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
Yes, it’s a really good place to live, I’ve lived up here since 2006. Younger ones do come, but there’s a lot of turnover in the market because of the commute. A lot of older people come in here during the week, but we do get a huge mixture of everyone. The locals seem to come in earlier, and then the tourists come in at lunch time.
What do you think Café Bravo really provides to the area?
People come in here to basically have a laugh, I think, and really good food. The girls on the front are so friendly, and we can chat to everyone on every different level. We do get the grumpy ones but we can cheer them up too. We brighten everybody’s day. They’re the friendliest people I’ve ever employed.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
Probably my relationships with all the girls. We keep each other on a good level. I like hospitality and I like making people happy. I don’t particularly like sorting out all the problems but that’s my job, and I do it with a smile. We have very few complaints. The only thing would be on a Sunday when people have to wait for food. We have a system that whoever’s on the till checks the wait time every 15 minutes and tell the customer as they order. Some of them walk away when they hear there’s a 30 minute wait, and then they go somewhere else and there’s an hour and a half wait and 90% of the time they come back and queue up again. We seem to be pretty organized and able to handle the crowds. Especially on Mothers’ Day, where we can get anywhere between 350 to 400 people, and there was a wait of 25 minutes for food and 10 for coffee. Everywhere else that I asked had a minimum of an hour and a half wait. We’re efficient. Everybody knows their job and they do it. We have a really good team. Last Mothers’ Day we had 15 staff and a queue the whole day, and not one complaint on the biggest day of the year.
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